The Gods of Shizenkai
by strange72191
Summary: HIATUS. Not dead, no, but I need to rework some plot into this. Then I'll take it down and start anew with what I've revised.
1. When A New Mission Arose

R&R please!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho; this disclaimer applies to all of my chapters in this fanfiction.

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Chapter One: When a New Mission Arose

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"Whoa...that was so weird. Cool! But weird..."

Reijin stood up under the oak tree and looked at the kitten clutched in her arms. It was frightened and clinging to her chest, and she did not blame it! Both of them had just fallen from the tree they were now under and were ten feet from impending doom before that freak incident. She looked back on the past few minutes with wonderment.

Reijin had been walking leisurely through a park to get to (1) Izumichishiki Junior High, where school had already started. She was lucky enough to have first period Study Hall, so she could sleep in and still make it to school without a tardy or blemishing absence. On her way that day, she could have sworn she had heard something, a little "mew". There it had been again and again, so she looked up and saw a little kitten in an oak tree. She had time to stop and climb the tree and get the cat, but slipped on the way down.

She had frantically tried to grab a branch when the wind blew suspiciously HARD and with good timing too. Random people on the sidewalk had fallen over and she was knocked into the trunk of the tree where she plopped onto one of the low-hanging branches. Although it had hurt to hit the tree and climb back down to the ground, what hurt the most was the kitten now clinging to her breast unflinchingly.

She did not have to wonder for too long where the kitten came from, a tall guy with a blue school uniform on ran up to her ranting about how he saw the whole thing from across the street and that it was his kitty, Eikichi.

"So," she began hesitantly," I'm Oriana Reijin, you?"

"Kuwabara Kazuma. Hey, thanks for saving Eikichi! Poor little thing could of never made it down on her own." He started making baby faces at the cat.

"Well, she sure made it up on her own," Reijin said ruefully.

"Yeah...how did you make it down anyway? I saw you slip and fall and then…then there was that ominous wind."

"I don't know, but now my uniform's all beat up," she examined the skirt, which only had a few minor rips and the blouse that was a bit scuffed up and dirty, "hopefully I can make it through the school day without too many questions. Which reminds me, why aren't you in school?" she asked warily.

"Uh, well, I left this morning looking for Eikichi because she's too precious to be left to suffer in the cold, cruel world all day…and that jerk, Urameshi, was supposed to be helping me," he gritted his teeth at the sound of the name.

"You mean Yusuke? I saw him this morning rummaging through my trash. He must've smelled my fish dinner from three nights ago and figured 'Well, to a cat fish is fish.'"

"That bastard! Eikichi would never sink so low as to, wait, you know Urameshi?"

"Yup, that bum ditches all the time and hangs around my house since I can ditch my first period Study Hall in the mornings." She smiled at her fortune.

"Lucky!"

"'Rigged' is more accurate, but I'll be late for second period if I don't head off now, bye."

"Oh, bye then! Thanks again!"

"Well, that was kind of random," Reijin muttered as she continued on her way to school.

Somewhere in Reikai...

"It's started. The power of Air has passed on, Kane has passed on," someone said sadly.

"Don't be this way, Beatrice, we'll soon join him, and knowing Kane he'll savor the sweet peace in the afterlife away from us for as long as possible," another person consoled the one named Beatrice with a slight grin.

A third person giggled, "Yes, he's been stuck with the same three women all his life; his soul will run when we die as well!"

"Thanks, Madeira, you're right Uma, things will most likely be the same as they were once we cross over, and then we'll be able to torture his soul instead of his body!"

These ladies were joking of course, they had been friends with Kane for so long that they would joke that way. Kane had only just died minutes ago, and his power over Air was passed to the next chosen one.

"Ladies, I know this is a tough time, but you knew it would be soon. Now, may I remind you of the order? Kane, Uma, Beatrice, and then Madeira, and as each of you pass on another individual receives your gift of power over one of the four Elements. We're discussing the last issue now, so pay attention!"

"But Koenma! What about Kane? He never mentioned who should train the new girl and now that he's dead..." Beatrice trailed off.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do about that right now. I'll have Botan ask his soul later. But who do you women have in mind?"

4: 00 P.M...

"C'mon Koenma, why are we here? I have a full schedule of couch potato-ing and being lazy today. I don't have time for this!" Yusuke whined impatiently.

There was a nicely sized crowd gathered in Koenma's office: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Yukina, Chuu, Rinku, Jin, Touya, Shishiwakamaru, and Suzuki.

"Shut up you bum! I've got two very important people about to die in the next room who won't stop begging for "one last cup of coffee" before they go! Anyway, as you are probably aware of by now there is another demon out there thinking he can take over the world. He and a select few are in hiding in the Makai right now and we need to prepare. We have no idea what their abilities or resources are, but their power readings are off the charts and Ogre is currently looking for their profiles. Now then," he paused, "Jin, Hiei, Touya, and Kurama, you are all about to be assigned vital roles in this mission. We need you to train these four humans..." He dragged off and waited for it.

As the boys received their trainees' profiles, they all noticed one thing in common.

"What's with these high school girls?" Hiei questioned skeptically.

"Ah, now it gets interesting. You see, these are the predicted recipients of the absolute powers over Air, Fire, Water, and Earth," he paused to observe the tension in the room," Air and Fire have already been passed on, Air at some point this morning, and Fire was a few short moments before you all arrived. The thing is, we need to train these girls in their arts before someone tries to harm them and steal their powers. As humans, they aren't that physically adept in comparison to any demons, so we'll need to…acquire…them as quickly as possible.

"So we're kidnapping them?" Touya affirmed.

"That's another way to put it, yes. Kurama, I need you and Botan to take a portal to the United States to capture and bring back one of them. I have a feeling any plant you have that induces sleep will come in handy. Hiei, the same goes for you, only you're going to London, England very briefly."

"Hn, but that still doesn't explain why they're all human teenage girls."

"The last beings to hold these powers smiled when they realized that. It actually has nothing to do with orientation—male, female, human, demon, it doesn't matter. Two of the wielders were friends before they found the others and they perceived it helped strengthen the two Elements' connections. For you see, it's not the holders themselves that we're trying to strengthen; it's the bond between them so that balance will remain in the world! What if volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and etcetera all tried to mold the world into their own havens? Chaos! Complete and utter destruction! Since the girls are already close friends, it helps us to ensure balance for the next few centuries."

"But, if they're humans, how will they maintain the balance for so long?" Kurama questioned.

"Having supernatural powers lengthened the lives of this last bunch, funny thing really, we're not quite sure how." Koenma knew this to be a lie. He knew exactly what he was talking about. He could not be certain of future events though, and would be withholding much more information than that petty piece of information. "Moving on! All of you will be training at Genkai's temple and staying there until further notice. Yukina, you're training mainly to further your healing powers, we'll more than likely be needing them, but work at your ice powers too because we won't know if any demons will try attacking the temple."

"I understand," she responded, "I'm just glad to be of help."

During the time Koenma talked, Yusuke and Kuwabara both tried to get good looks at the girls over their teammates' shoulders, but when they saw the Air girl's profile, they both jumped.

"You have to be kidding! Reijin's one of them?" They half laughed, half shouted.

"Well, that does explain that freaky incident with the wind this morning," Kuwabara stated, and went on to explain the event with his kitten, which led to his remembrance of needing to pound on Yusuke, which led to a fight. The others ignored them.

"Well, now that you've seen them it wouldn't be such a bad idea if you all familiarized yourselves with their profiles."

Koenma sighed and pushed a button under his desk. All four profiles were pulled up onto the screen along with their pictures.

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Name: Arabelle "Reijin" Oriana

Gender: Female

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan, Ningenkai

DOB: September 26, (2)1983

Age: 13 years

Race: Human

Ethnicity: ½ Japanese (mother), ½ Scottish-American (father)

Complexion: Very fair

Hair: Bright orange, short and messy

Eyes: Amber

Height: 5'4"

Weight: 107 lbs.

School: Izumichishiki Junior High

Grade: 7

Location: (3) Tokyo, Japan, Ningenkai

Likes: Sushi, hanging out

Dislikes: Clubs or gangs, bribes

Basic Personality: Easygoing, sociable, gullible, changeable, witty, self-indulgent

Other: (4) Allergic to cats

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Name: Cayenne Teman

Gender: Female

Birthplace: Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A., Ningenkai

DOB: March 29, 1982

Age: 14 years

Race: Human

Ethnicity: ½ Native American (mother), ½ Native American/Caucasian (father)

Complexion: Tan

Hair: Black-blue, parted on left, shoulder length and somewhat layered, wild bangs, strands in front of ears kept short

Eyes: Dark green

Height: 5'5"

Weight: 115 lbs.

School: South Haywood High

Grade: 9

Location: London, England, Ningenkai

Likes: Being unique, good competition, ramen

Dislikes: Being patient, utter failure at anything, uncreative people

Basic Personality: Adventurous, energetic, spontaneous, confident, quick, temperamental, impulsive, foolhardy

Other: Wears rectangular glasses or contacts

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Name: Meriel Nisha

Gender: Female

Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan, Ningenkai

DOB: July 11, 1982

Age: 14 years

Race: Human

Ethnicity: Japanese

Complexion: Olive

Hair: Brunette w/ purple streaks, parted down middle and usually in two ponytails, long

Eyes: Dark Brown

Height: 5'1"

Weight: 112 lbs.

School: Pennon High School

Grade: 8

Location: Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., Ningenkai

Likes: Outdoors, Kendo, Candles

Dislikes: Parties, taking advice

Basic Personality: Loving, intuitive, shrewd, protective, touchy, clingy

Other: Recently moved to the U.S.A. From Tokyo, Japan

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Name: Takara Kita

Gender: Female

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan, Ningenkai

DOB: January 1, 1981

Age: 15 years

Race: Human

Ethnicity: Japanese

Complexion: Pale

Hair: Black, parted on right, left side usually pulled back with a hair clip, short and wavy

Eyes: Blue

Height: 5'2"

Weight: 118 lbs.

School: Sarayashiki Junior High

Grade: 9

Location: Tokyo, Japan, Ningenkai

Likes: Cats, Squeeze-y cheese

Dislikes: Dead-end jobs, crazies, "know-it-alls"

Basic Personality: Practical, ambitious, humorous, reserved, protective, somewhat serious, laid-back

Other: Never steal her Dr. Pepper, things happen

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As they read, Yusuke and Kuwabara started cracking up again.

"Yo, her real name's Arabelle! Heh heh, she's never gonna live that down!"

"What about Takara? She goes to our school…isn't she the one who always sits by the window and looks like she'll eat you if you get too close?"

"Yeah, she gives me the creeps, but I've talked to her and it's mostly a big mouth over deadly claws...well, a big mouth with teeth depending on what mood you catch her in..."

Apparently Yusuke was remembering some incident he had before with the last girl. But there was not a whole lot of time before the others in the next room passed into the afterlife and they needed to get all these girls in one place before Makai demons got wind of what was happening. Koenma sent Kurama, Hiei, Botan, and (5)Hisano on their ways, Botan took Kurama to the States and Hisano flew Hiei to England; they would be back in a few hours. Yusuke and Kuwabara were sent after Takara and Reijin, everyone else was hurried off to Genkai's to work out living arrangements.

A few hours later...

Reijin sat in between two beds, in each one lay a friend. One was occupied by Meriel, the other held Cayenne. Altogether the room contained four beds, two vanities, two windows, one bookshelf, a few lamps, and other decorative figures like statues and paintings. The primary color was purple and variations of said hue with white furniture.

She had arrived there first after Kuwabara came over and said that there was this cool place he wanted to show her, though riding on an oar to get there had seemed unconventional, it was fun. She was somewhat jumpy after the flight but otherwise in her right mind. The strange people she ran into were nice also so she just figured she would wait around to see what would happen, and after all, they went through the trouble to provide her with a nice room and said her friends would be joining her shortly.

She had been a little shocked when they brought the other two in though. A redhead and spiky black-haired guy carried them in, Meriel was in a deep sleep, but Cayenne was unconscious and in her pajamas which made Reijin wonder just what the hell happened. The shorter of the two answered her question vaguely and said force was necessary, there was an incident with some dancing game and a Playstation2. Reijin did not even want to think of what might have happened if Cayenne had been interrupted during a game of _Dance Dance Revolution_.

Meriel seemed to be waking up now, she responded to her name more and twitched kind of. Suddenly, the door was kicked open and in came Yusuke carrying a kicking and screaming Takara. Meriel's eyes snapped open and she fell out of bed and landed in a heap of covers on the floor.

"Put me down you rude sonuvafuck!"

"Stop kicking and hold still!"

They wrestled with each other for a while, there was more screaming, and finally Yusuke became so frustrated that he threw her clear across the room where she bounced off of one of the beds and hit the floor on the other side. Before she had the chance to run back and take a swing at him, he ran out of the room and locked the door behind him. As Takara repeatedly pounded on the door, Cayenne eventually regained consciousness and Meriel fought her way out of the pile of purple-ness that had consumed her.

"Whoa, what hit me?" Cayenne questioned.

"A hot guy with no patience for the DDR lovers of England," Reijin responded rather monotone.

Sure, this was a serious issue, kidnapping, a seriously boring one! Then again, she had been there for a while now. While the others freaked out, she jumped on her bed until she was high enough to hit the canopy and then flopped on her butt. She kept it up until the other girls calmed down and joined in. So, there they were, all jumping on their temporary beds while talking about random stuff, what was going on, who had brought them there, what they were up to. Then the conversation switched to what went on at school that day, who was doing what before being abducted, and et al.

Takara was talking about a bitch she was about to backhand just before Yusuke had grabbed and brought her there. A quick air punch, though, threw her off balance as the door was reopened and she went sprawling across the floor in front of said door opener.

It was the redhead from earlier who had abducted Meriel. He helped her up but she kept her head down as a blush of embarrassment slid across her face. He then said that the one who had ordered their capture, Koenma, wished to see them now. They followed him down a few hallways and through some work spaces occupied by strange creatures known as ogres. There were also some people flying around on oars carrying souls to and from places. All the time they walked they kept close together and whispered about who this Koenma guy could be. They were not expecting what they got.

"Hey...who's the kid?" Takara asked.

"I'm not a kid! I'm older than your great grandparents so you'd better show some respect!"

"Ah! It talks!"

"Tch, you'd better believe I talk, and I have a lot to talk to you girls about so listen up!"

"Ooh, Takara got told by a baby, I bet she's afraid," Reijin jested.

"Yeah, like Arabelle's a very threatening name," Yusuke joked.

She stiffened at her real name and turned to him with an evil look in her eyes.

"How did you find out?" she whispered sinisterly.

"Heh heh, we've got your profile right here," he said and waved it tauntingly in front of her.

"Hold very still," she spoke unwavering, "I'm going to murder you."

She grabbed an attractive vase off of its stand, dumped the red and white flowers and water onto the floor and began unceasingly attacking Yusuke with it. At one point, when he should have dodged left and he ducked instead, she cracked it over his head. She grabbed one of the shards off of the floor and was about to cut him with it when he yelled out that he was sorry and that he would never tell. It seemed to trigger some forgiving power in her so she dropped the shard and skipped back over to the safety of her friends before smiling and mouthing the word "pansy" as Koenma began speaking to them. He shuddered but quickly shook it off and stood.

"This may come as a shock to you girls, but I think it could be better explained with any incidents that have happened today. Well? Have there been any in particular?" the toddler questioned.

They stopped to think of any extraordinary past experiences.

"Well, there was that thing with the wind," she glanced about at the different stares, "all of a sudden this morning, I've never felt it blow that hard before so suddenly," Reijin started.

"Yeah! There was this girl at the mall, she pissed me off so bad, but then, like when I was glaring her in the face and she was just smirking and lighting a cig, the lighter went haywire and burned really high and scarred her face for life!" Cayenne told.

"What about us? Meriel and I haven't had anything suspicious happen lately, have we?" Takara added and Meriel nodded in agreement.

"That's to be expected," Koenma said, "you haven't received your powers yet because the other two have yet to die."

"Other two? Wait, you mean Reijin and Cayenne!?" Meriel exclaimed.

"No, no, no, I meant the two in the next room! I guess I should explain in depth."

"Yeah, thanks, that would be very nice," Takara piped irritably.

"You see, every couple of centuries four people inherit the supreme abilities over the four elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. You never know who it'll be until the current holders are near death, which they are now; the remaining two will die before dawn. We usually use a powerful psychic to predict who the recipients will be, and in this case it's you four. Seeing as you're unskillful humans," he paused as Reijin coughed and directed his gaze towards the broken vase, "well, untrained humans, and many demons will want your powers," he stopped again as Cayenne interrupted.

"Demons? Like the monsters from fairy tales or something?"

"No, much worse than those I'm afraid, and different, for instance, Kurama and Hiei over there," he referred to the redhead and black-robed short guy, "are demons, powerful and deadly demons that are luckily enough on our side. There are those on the opposition, though, who **will** use their powers to **kill** and **eat** you to consume your powers."

"...Kill...and eat?" Takara said somewhat shaken.

"Don't worry; we'll prevent that at all costs. And that's why you're here in the first place, we've arranged so that you'll be trained in your crafts until you can fend for yourselves."

"But what about school, and our parents, what will we do about them?" Meriel questioned nervously, "I'm an ocean away from my house, how will you explain that to them?"

"Like I've said before, don't worry about it," he stressed "for school we'll draw up some fake scholarships and send someone to explain it to your parents. For actual schoolwork we'll provide time for home schooling at Genkai's temple which, by the way, is where you'll be staying. Any more concerns?"

It remained quiet, either no one could think of anything that was really important, or they were keeping individual worries to themselves, probably a little bit of both.

"Very well, Botan, Hisano, take them to Genkai's, have her accommodate them appropriately and we'll get down to business in the morning."

"Yes sir, Koenma!"

The girls sat on the oars rather awkwardly, one in front of and one behind the controller. Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei stayed behind, they still had a few more things to talk about with Koenma, more than likely the details of their mission with the girls. As they took off into the sky and soared past the river Styx and back to Ningenkai, they remained silent, each thought of their own anxieties about the burdens that lay ahead.

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Author's Notes:

(1)Izumichishiki Junior High - I made this up for Arabelle's school, but I don't know if it's right. I combined izumi--spring; fountain--with chishiki--knowledge--to get the effect "fountain of knowledge" but is that right? If it isn't I'd appreciate it if someone could correct me.

(2)1983 - I used this date because the YYH series ended in 1995, and I want the year now to be 1996, although I haven't see the last series I hope I don't write anything too improbable to the plot after the series is over, if I do, I won't change it, just bear with me.

(3)Tokyo, Japan - Is that where Yusuke and such live? Or is it somewhere else? Correct me if I'm wrong.

(4)Allergic to cats - I realize that Arabelle rescued Eikichi earlier and nothing was wrong, but she isn't extremely allergic and she washed her hands when she got to school. She just had to be careful not to touch her shirt the whole day

(5)Hisano – a ferry girl of my own creation, don't worry, you have not overlooked an important character or anything, I just made her up for circumstances

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Tell me what you think! 


	2. Casualties of Food Network Madness

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.

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Chapter Two: Casualties of Food Network Madness

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"Oi, remind me to never fly the Oar Express, ever again," Meriel groaned and slumped to the ground.

"Okay girls, listen up!" Botan called attentively. "Here's the lay of the land: over there to our left is the temple, but where you'll actually be staying is the (1) mansion to our right, by the way, for your own safety I advise you to never go behind either of them without someone with you!"

"Why not?" Reijin asked.

"Oh, tons of reasons, but most of them are gruesome, frightening, and would most likely have you running down the hill and we can't have that now can we?" she replied cheerily, "That said, to the mansion!"

Meriel brought herself to stand and everyone trudged tiredly into the large building. There were five people in the living room; they assumed they were some of the ones Botan referred to outside. One guy had blue hair with aqua spiked bangs and was pacing in front of the TV watching the news while eating (2) yogurt. A girl with turquoise hair sat across the room at a table and was occasionally glancing at the TV. There were two more on the couch, a tall dude with a Mohawk drinking booze and a short kid messing around with a yo-yo. The last one, an old woman with pink hair came up to them and began speaking.

"Hello there, I'm guessing you're the hooligans who have come to train at my temple, I'm Genkai. I hear this house has been the training grounds for the (3) Gods of Shizenkai in previous centuries as well."

Introductions were made and Genkai added that three more guests were out back training and would probably be back in later. Then she explained the room situation. They had to pick the middle rooms on each side of the mansion on the third floor for some mystic reason she would not explain. Takara was in the North, Reijin took the East, and Cayenne had the room on the South end, which left Meriel in the West.

The structure of the mansion confused them, except for Meriel. She mentioned that it was something like a hotel an American friend of hers stayed at for an anime convention. There were seven (4) floors, but none except for the bottom had a main floor, like an empty prism. Instead there was a hallway lining the edge of each level with doors branching off into different rooms.

Paranoid to leave the doorway at first, they moved slowly as a group toward the stairs and kept their eyes on the new people at all times, especially the guy with the Mohawk. But, as Cayenne walked past the couch she must have caught the drunken one's eye, for he reached out one of his huge arms, grabbed her around the waist, and flipped her over the couch. She landed on her butt with an "eep!"

"Ho ho! So 'his -hic- is one o' our new li'l guests, eh? Fi'e pick if ya ask me! 'Er aura's goin' off like a firecracker, 'specially when sha went flyin' o'er the back o' the couch like that, heh heh heh!"

"Chuu! Don't scare her like that, you practically hurled her into the cushions!" the kid, Rinku piped up, "He isn't really a bad guy once you get to know him, he's just drunk most of the time," he laughed.

With that, the ice was broken. Meriel settled in the quickest and jumped onto the kitchen counter. Takara took this as her cue to start cooking something and so Touya and his yogurt were forced elsewhere as Cayenne and Reijin took total control of the TV. They switched from the news to Food Network where a special on low fat fast food was happening. The guy was replacing fried chicken with baked chicken and testing it on the costumers of a local restaurant.

Yukina, the girl who was at the table, took interest in the show and decided to help Takara in the kitchen. Meriel was being a pain and continuously messed up the recipe so Yukina took over for her and she gladly sat back on the counter and watched. Cayenne yelled to them what was going on during the show from the living room and Reijin was busy taking notes for later.

With all of them preoccupied, they did not notice the other three come back from behind the temple. One took off up the stairs immediately, but even so no one in particular noticed them until a redhead flew up to Meriel when her head was turned and yes, flew.

"So, which one's this?" he asked to no one specifically, pointing at her.

Meriel whipped her head around and squeaked before she fell backwards off of the counter. This startled him but he caught her leg and swiftly pulled her back up.

"A bit jumpy, this one!" he laughed.

"Hell, anyone would be jumpy if you snuck up on them like that!" she yelled and bopped him on the head.

"Well Meriel, I, uh, hate to break it to you," Takara jeered, "but he was right up in your face so that's more like blindness or idiocy on your part," she paused to take the chicken out, "take your pick."

"Shut up!" she giggled and threw a fork at her.

Takara moved to avoid the piece of cutlery but lost her balance and sent the pan flying. Fortunately, another guy who had just come in unsheathed his sword and caught the tray with it. It was perfectly balanced on the blade when he flicked it into the air, took a step forward and grabbed it with his hand. He gave it back to Takara who thanked him.

"God, I'm such a klutz today, I don't know what's wrong with me!" she joked.

"Just pay a little more attention while insulting your adversary next time."

"Heh, you're right."

"Oh good, you're all back," Touya started once he finished the rest of his yogurt, "girls, the one that's floating is (5)Jin, the guy with the sword is Shishiwakamaru, (6) Shishi for short, and the guy that ran up the stairs a minute ago was Suzuki. Hey, where did he go anyway?"

"Back to his room, he said something about stabilizing some new ingredients for a project," Shishi stated as what sounded like a small explosion came form the back of the house. They did not question further.

"Well, hell, I didn't think about it until now but there are," Takara paused, in thought," (7) sixteen! Sixteen of us in all! I'm going to need to make more chicken..." she looked rather disdained as she stared at her one measly tray of baked chicken.

"Never fear, Takara! That's how," Reijin paused for dramatic effect and shifted her gaze, "_they_ get you...we shall help you on your mission to feed us all with chicken-y goodness tonight!"

Who knew what she was thinking at the word "they" but all the same she hopped up off the floor and brought her notes to Takara who immediately put her, Yukina, and Meriel to work with ingredients as Cayenne took notes on the next dish that the chef was making. Some of them began protesting that they did not have to cook for them but they would not hear it. After all, they needed something to occupy themselves with.

"Really, you girls don't need to go to any trouble!" Rinku told them.

"Like hell, you guys are too scrawny for us **not** to commandeer your kitchen!" Takara told him.

"It's called being in shape."

"It's called being a stick."

Except for a small incident involving Reijin and paprika they finished fairly quickly and just in time--the last four returned from Koenma's office when they were taking out the last batch.

"Hey, I didn't know you guys could cook!" Yusuke exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, we **only** watch Food Network **every** day, **scouring** it for new recipes, how would **we** possibly **know anything** about **cooking**?" Takara said sarcastically.

"Damn straight!" Cayenne added enthusiastically.

"Okay girls, it's going to get late soon, late enough for you to dread waking up in the morning anyway," Genkai began, "eat and go to your rooms. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how they work."

Reijin, who rarely exercised self-control, ran up the stairs with half a piece of chicken still hanging out her mouth to check out her room, the other girls lagged behind to finish dinner. Being in her socks, she slipped trying to turn into her room and fell through the door onto white carpet. When she looked up she could have sworn she saw the room of her dreams and flopped on spring green sheets and frilly pillows atop a wooden bunk bed to get a better look at the room. It had a white vanity with a vase of fresh sunflowers sitting on it. She liked space in her room, so naturally all her clothes were in the closet. Her electronics were cluttered on one desk near the door: computer on the left, TV on the right, and a few notepads and drawing books in the center. She checked out the bathroom before exiting and the sudden change from green and white to red and pink played with her eyes for a second so she did a double take. On the way out she glanced at the cute puppy-themed calendar hanging on her door.

"Hey guys!" She contained a giggle, "You just might want to come check this out!"

In seconds, Cayenne dipped the last of her chicken in ketchup, popped it in her mouth, and swiftly made her way to the third floor. Reijin was no where in sight; probably back in her room, so she went straight to her own. Her reaction was similar to Reijin's except less contained. She jumped, screamed, laughed, hit the floor and started rolling around and was overall ecstatic about her new room.

Her bed was a queen and had a floral pattern spread, the floor was hardwood with a red rug covering the middle of the room, and the walls were painted a subtle rose color. Unlike Reijin, she liked having her clothes organized in a chest of drawers, so instead of clothes in her closet the floor was riddled with video games. Her room had a window seat which was mostly inhabited by plush. Her electronics were arranged differently from the way her friends would have them: the computer was at one corner of a small table facing one side of the room and the TV was on the counter-corner--she liked to be using one or the other, not both.

She did not bother to check the bathroom on her way out, she already knew it would have a similar floral pattern as the room. When she left, she saw Reijin in the hallway trying to convince Meriel and Takara to hurry upstairs. Both of them trying had Meriel coming up in the next few minutes, but Takara was being stubborn and said that she would take her sweet time coming up which irritated the hell out of them. If they had known it was torturing Takara on the inside too, they might not have felt as bothered though.

They ran into Meriel's room with her and there was more squealing. Takara could not protest when the three of them came back down and pushed her up the stairs to her room. As they went up, Genkai snickered and explained that the rooms were designed to mold to the desire of the possessors. That hurried Takara up a little and pretty soon everyone was feeling at home.

About four hours later, a.k.a. 2 A.M. …

Cayenne was sitting on the floor playing _Mario Party 6_ when Takara quietly slipped into her room.

"BOO!"

"Shit!" Cayenne yelled, fell over, hit a random combo and won the mini-game.

"Nice."

"Takara! What the fuck are you doing in here? We're supposed to be asleep!"

"You're playing video games and telling me that? Anyway, I tripped over Reijin in the hallway and fell way louder than that, trust me, no one heard you."

"Are you sure? Wait, what?"

"On my way over here I saw Reijin lying in the middle of the hallway wide awake, scared the crap out of me too! She looked kind of dead...anyway, she said she couldn't sleep and you now how weird she is when she can't sleep."

"No kidding, last time she couldn't sleep I found her on the roof the next morning, covered in bird feed and peanut butter, like a pine cone or something, and she was dead asleep even though birds were picking at her and stuff."

"Yeah, that was during her "becoming in tune with nature" phase wasn't it? Oh well, moving on! I got her to go get Meriel and we're plotting a kitchen disaster."

"Yay! Just don't leave the paprika out this time..."

A drop of sweat rolled down Takara's cheek as she remembered earlier that evening with said spice, it had not been pretty.

In Meriel's room…

_Huh...whatsit...orange? Probably my imagina--_

"AH!"

Reijin had crept into Meriel's room, crawled flatly around the small twin bed and sneakily pounced on her friend when she rolled over. She captured her inside ocean blue covers but was outfought and Meriel hit the floor in a mass of sheets for the second time in twenty-four hours.

"Grr, Reijin! What the hell!"

"We're supposed to go meet at the staircase," she responded brusquely.

"Wha...?"

Reijin, in a hurry, ended up dragging Meriel to their rendezvous place with her still in a clueless, half-asleep haze.

They met and snuck downstairs. Cayenne had written down a recipe for chocolate cheesecake so they decided to make that.

"Whee! Chocolate-y goodness!"

Reijin giggled and skipped into the kitchen behind the others with Takara leading the way. They shushed her and she stuck her tongue out at them. She did a little spin out of hyperactivity but tripped over her own feet at the sight of Hiei, right in front of her, with his sword unsheathed and pointed in her direction.

"Kya!"

Thank the good lord for wind powers. Her power was not in check, so when she shot her hands down in surprise, she was lifted into the air. This was where gymnastics kicked in. She put her hands on his shoulders and did a handspring over him. As soon as she landed, she spun to face him.

"What in the heck was **that** this early in the morning?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he lifted an eyebrow at her sudden reflexes and sheathed his sword, "at least one of you might survive the training. So I'm going to take a wild guess and say you either couldn't sleep or are throwing an early morning pajama party?"

"Hey! I actually got some sleep, it was Reijin who forced me to up and come down here!" Meriel clarified.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me what you do, I'm always up early for training," he muttered something they couldn't hear and walked to the freezer.

Reijin followed him; there was something she needed to do. As some devious plot against one of her friends began, she distinctly heard the sentence, "Good, there's still some (8) sweet snow left," from Hiei.

Reijin whispered what she had heard to Meriel who jumped and yelled while pointing an accusing finger at him, "Oh my God, you're an ice cream junkie!"

He jumped and turned to her, "What?"

"Only really bad ice cream junkies have pet names for their ice cream! I mean, ahem, sweet snow," she grinned at him.

He glared back and was about to help himself to the rest of the frozen treat until Cayenne stole it. It was unexpected, which is the only reason she succeeded in running circles around the living room with him after her. They all learned how quick he could be the hard way. He stole it back only to have Meriel grab the box and toss it to Reijin who jumped as he sped by. She landed on the slick kitchen floor when the wind force he created blew her across the room. She shook in silent laughter before collapsing and handing over the precious substance to Hiei who took his breakfast elsewhere.

Things settled a little, they had their morning exercise and focused on cheesecake for the next two hours before putting it in the fridge and going back to sleep. Unfortunately for them, Genkai sent Yusuke and Kuwabara to wake them up thirty minutes after they had fallen back asleep. Although Yusuke took a more subtle method of pouncing on them while saying "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bacey!" in a sing-song voice, Kuwabara took the liberty of tossing Takara and Meriel into Takara's bathtub filled with ice cold water. Even though he was almost decapitated by a toothbrush in the process, it was a complete success and everyone except Meriel was up, dressed, and downstairs within the next couple of minutes.

"Remind me again," Takara began testily while pouring some orange juice for herself, "why are we awake at the butt-crack of dawn?"

"We aren't," Reijin joked humorlessly, "we haven't even reached the butt-crack, we're still somewhere around the thigh of dawn."

"Heh, it doesn't matter which one we're at," Cayenne started, "so long as someone passes me the coffee."

"No coffee,"Genkai stated and forcefully handed her a cup of tea, "it messes with your brain during training. Wait," she glanced at them, "there were four of you last night. Where's Meriel?"

"Oh, she said something about not being able to find her _panties_!" Reijin yelled upward loud enough for Meriel to hear who immediately responded to her gibe.

"It's not my _panties_; I just can't find any _bras_! Reijin, what did you do with them!"

They heard a door slam and footsteps hurrying down the stairs.

"Well, that just made my morning, anyone else up for getting out of this house as quickly as possible before I'm murdered?" Reijin asked.

"Sure," Yusuke responded while digging in the freezer and pulling out a box of waffles, "it's getting way too feminine…in…here…for me," he stopped moving altogether and called to Meriel when she reached the bottom of the stairs,"Meriel? I think I just found your bras."

"**What?**" she hissed.

"Hee hee, I think I'm just gonna go for a little morning jog," Reijin said and dashed out the door faster than any of them could hope to run that early in the morning.

After the freezer incident, it triggered in Takara's mind that there was fresh cheesecake in the fridge that they could have in a few hours. She announced this before going outside to help Meriel hunt down Reijin using her full name as a sort of Reijin call/threat. Reijin must have dipped down the hill and circled around them because she ran back inside somewhat out of breath and the other two did not come back until maybe ten minutes later after she had had a semi-comfortable breakfast and claimed to be ready to train.

"I'll…I'll kill you!" Meriel yelled, "Takara, fetch me a weapon! We shall paint the morning red."

"Yay, it's murder-the-Reijin time!"

Obviously being up that early was screwing with their heads, or at least that was what their audience thought, but before Meriel could successfully kill Reijin or Takara could find a suitable weapon to help her—she wanted to use the "bashing in of the head" method—Koenma stopped by to break up the fight "because he had serious business to discuss," of course. They had to reawaken Cayenne who had fallen asleep on the couch while they were out on their little escapade, but nothing more eventful than a small nudge or thump between the girls interrupted the meeting.

"Okay, since the previous Gods of Shizenkai have all passed," he paused for a moment of respect, "it's time for you to inherit their weapons."

He brought out four individual boxes that had symbols from different languages plastered all over them. It did not matter which one you could read though, they all read the same word—the name of the Element of the weapon contained inside. He handed each girl their specific box and began explaining.

"First of all, don't open these indoors," he stressed the opening statement as he saw Reijin start to disclose hers. This made her freeze and slowly let the lid back down. "Now then, these weapons are like none you've ever seen before. They have specific adaptations that can be used to change the effects of your Element. Use caution, for as you figure out what each certain form can do, you'll need to be able to control it or it can cause a lot of damage. For instance, Takara, if you aren't careful you could cause an earthquake and destroy this entire city."

"Fun."

"Yes, but not for the residents nearby, anyway you get the drift, be careful. That is all."

That being said, he left them to their new tasks.

"Well, what now? Should we just go outside and open them?" Cayenne asked.

"Are you dense?" Hiei stated, "it's not just about opening it inside, it's about training yourself to be adequate enough to use it. I think we'd all agree to basic training today, right?" He glanced expectantly at Kurama, Jin, and Touya.

"That would be best," Touya agreed.

Though the girls complained and procrastinated, their boxes were confiscated until further notice and they reluctantly followed their teachers outside. Jin was working with Reijin, Touya had Meriel, Kurama was going to teach Takara, and Hiei was stuck with Cayenne. The eight of them walked towards the temple and as they did so, the sun rose on their first day of training.

"I would much rather be playing _Mario Party_ right now," Cayenne complained.

"What's that?" Hiei questioned, "One of your ridiculous human games I'm sure."

"Yes, but it's fun! And I could learn stuff from that you know," she retorted.

"Oh really?"

Cayenne could not tell what had happened, one moment she was walking with the others, the next she was back in her room.

"Hey! How'd we get back here! Did you teleport us or something?"

"Hn, merely a figment of your slow mind, I simply walked a little faster to get us back here."

"Wait a minute, if you can move this fast, why didn't you steal the ice cream back right away earlier?"

"It was amusing to watch you all scramble, now show me this game you think would help."

"Fine! I'll prove to you it can help me, it'll improve my reflexes!" she said confidently.

She started up the game, went to Mini-game Mode and played "What Goes Up..." on night mode. The objective was to fall and reach the ground the fastest while avoiding flying koopas and clouds. After she played a few times she figured, _well, it's not like this is going to be my training anyway_, and told Hiei to take them back to the others. He, however, refused.

"Keep playing."

"What, but what about training?"

"This is your training. Fall without hitting any of the obstacles."

"Impossible! Do you know how long that would take?"

"Long enough to considerably improve your reflexes and you'll play until you succeed so start."

* * *

Author's Notes:

(1) mansion - Whatever I say about Genkai's mansion, go with it. Because I really have no idea what I'm talking about in relevance to the anime, but I'm making it suit my needs while trying not to make it too outlandish to the actual setting.

(2) yogurt - It was the weirdest thing, I just saw him eating yogurt for some reason. I drew a decent fan art of it too, I was that compelled to see it happen, it even has him nudging Takara away in chibi form since she didn't make it onto the page and he would not allow her to steal his yogurt in the picture.

(3) Gods of Shizenkai - okay, explanation time! Shizenkai refers to the natural world, the World of Nature, and when they master their Elements completely--WAIT, I can't tell you that. : P

(4) floors - I wasn't sure how to make each individual level look, so I did it this way. It might seem a little hard to picture from the way I described it, but it was like that at the hotel at MTAC 6th Period. Google around and I bet you'll find a picture of that hotel somewhere, and then you'll see what I'm talking about.

(5) Jin - He doesn't have an Irish accent in this one since I don't think he has one in the manga, in case no one's noticed, I'm using the manga as my main resource instead of the anime.

(6) Sixteen - I got that right didn't I? Did I leave anyone out of this group: Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, Touya, Jin, Chuu, Rinku, Shishiwakamaru, Suzuki, Yukina, Genkai, Takara, Reijin, Cayenne, and Meriel?

(7) Shishi - Many people use just Shishi in their writings, but when I looked at May's 2006 issue of Shonen Jump, at the end of the fight between him and Genkai on page 220 it shows a close up of his eye where he's shocked that she countered him and under the pic it says 'Shishiwaka' so that readers would know it was him. I thought about using it instead of the more popular shorter version since this one was in the actual manga, but since people are used to hearing "Shishi" and for the sake of simplicity, I'm sticking with this nickname.

(8)Sweet snow - I want to know where this began O.O what genius thought of this?

* * *

Daniella's a psycho maid gnome! …Don't even ask, just review XD; 


	3. Half Full In That Half Empty Space

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.

* * *

Chapter Three: Half Full In That Half Empty Space

* * *

Takara dragged herself through the doorway and plopped down on the couch next to Cayenne who didn't say anything. Kurama had put her through two good long hours of gymnastics exercises when she learned how to bend using muscles she never knew she had. After becoming a bit more flexible, two more hours of general strength training took place before she, along with the others, were allowed a break. She thought she was the first to make it back to the mansion but, lo and behold, Cayenne was there next to her being too quiet in her opinion.

"Cayenne? Are you alright?"

She waved a hand in front of her face, yelled in her ear, threatened to poke her to no avail. But when she actually **did** poke her in the shoulder, oh boy, did she get a reaction!

"**DON'T TOUCH THE KOOPA!**"

"AAH!"

Takara tumbled backwards off of the couch and Kurama ran over to help her.

"What's wrong?"

Takara merely let out a shaken giggle and pointed towards Cayenne who was twitching madly.

"Too many koopas...I didn't touch it, you're delusional. Fucking cloud, move out of my way!" she dropped to the floor and started rolling around in circles.

Hiei entered the room and smirked at the hysterical girl.

"Hiei, what did you do to her?" Kurama asked suspiciously.

"Nothing intense, but when you train yours on reflexes you should really try this _Mario Party_ game, it gets amusingly effective results."

"_Mario Party_? You trained her with a video game? Tch, how lame is that?" Takara said, disbelieving such that training could cause her friend this much delirium.

"Well, she can play "What Goes Up..." without hitting a single deterrent now. I doubt any of you or your little friends can do that."

"So?"

"So, her eyes can detect movement much easier now, therefore improving her reflexes. Also, her mind goes to another place when you mention those flying turtle things." Another smirk crossed his features.

"You mean the koopas?"

Cayenne promptly screamed.

"Yep, those."

It took a little while to sooth Cayenne's nerves. She did beat the game without hitting anything, and her reflexes had improved, so it was all for the better. Meriel came in a few minutes later and lifted all their spirits when they remembered that there was cheesecake to eat. One was strawberry, the other chocolate. Reijin came in and had to have the strawberry one pried away from her; she was not tired like the rest of them, more like invigorated.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, she had convinced Jin to fly them into the city for doughnuts. Since neither of them really ever ate the sugary treat, it was a nice way to start the morning before being thrown into the air and learning the proper way to float if you didn't want to go spiraling into a tree. Since her power would keep her levitated, it was most important to know which way the winds were supposed to blow, and what to do if control was lost.

Meriel learned how to be less random with the swings of her kendo sword, her chosen weapon for the practice. Water would be hard to concentrate into any specific form, let alone use in a fight. She was glad to relax after her precision training and enjoyed a piece of the chocolate cheesecake as Reijin rolled about the floor muttering something about "sugary goodness" and "fwaa."

"Hey, when do we go back outside to train more?" Reijin asked after she slowed her roll a bit.

Cayenne mouthed the word "no," Meriel signaled "X"s with her arms from the kitchen and Takara took the offensive and tackled her to the ground.

While they fought Hiei answered, "You don't, not today anyway."

"Hm? Why not?" Takara questioned from the floor, relieved.

"You girls need to learn to be more flexible, not just with your bodies either. Each of your elements has certain attributes, including the time of day when you're at your peak of power. I can only assume Reijin is this hyper because dawn is her ruling period," Kurama explained, "Botan's researching the information and will get it to us as soon as possible. Either way there will be four hour training sessions each day. Today was at dawn, tomorrow will be around noon, then the next day will be at dusk, followed by one at midnight and we'll repeat the process."

"You mean you'll be getting us up at midnight to go fight!" Cayenne exclaimed.

"Whoo! Midnight training session!" Takara yelled gleefully.

"Well, I guess we know your ruling period," Meriel figured.

"Yeah, her other ruling period is when she's PMSing and no one can oppose her newfound bitchiness."

Cayenne was restored to her normal state after realizing she had made that remark while being in kicking range of Takara and made a break for it up the stairs with her in hot pursuit. Once locked in her room, she collapsed into sweet sleep that was missed dearly during the hours spent playing that now dreaded "What Goes Up..." game.

Once Takara realized her efforts were futile she stomped back downstairs and drowned her embarrassment in more cheesecake. Kurama decided not to remind them of their studies at this moment, he would wait until later that afternoon. It would be easier for them if it were around the time school let out anyway, homework would add a bit of normality to their schedules.

Takara soon decided she was sleepy too and trailed off upstairs to her room. Meriel followed soon afterwards, but Reijin fell into a half-sleep on the couch while watching cartoons. Jin, who was assigned to keep up with them until afternoon while the others trained, saw and prodded her. It was entertaining since she did not wake up, even though he had thought she did when she started talking in her sleep.

"Noooooo...monkey? Come back with my Skittles!"

She rolled off of the couch and into a heap on the floor which woke her up. Apparently she was trying to catch said monkey before she hit the ground and saw Jin hovering overhead with a suspicious looking finger.

"...Were you poking me?"

"Um, no..."

"Answer carefully. Were you poking me?"

"...Maybe..."

"Don't poke me," she said getting up to retrieve a glass of grape juice.

"Okay...?"

_So this is what the half past and living are like_, Jin thought amusedly.

It was more like three fourths dead actually, she made it halfway back to the couch before tripping over air (I hate it when that happens!) and almost spilling grape juice everywhere. The cup barely slipped out of her hand before Jin caught it, Reijin was just awake enough keep from falling flat on the floor.

"Hey, are you going to be alright?" he asked, doubtful of her ability to stand at the moment.

Reijin wobbled back to the couch before responding, "I'm fine, really, just semi-unconscious."

She flopped back onto the cushions and positioned herself under one pillow and on top of another before mind-numbing cartoons meant for the demented brains of three year olds lulled her back into her buzzed funk. Jin set the cup of juice on the table next to her and wondered, _how much longer 'til noon?_

About an hour later...

Cayenne rolled around restlessly in her sleep. She had a very slim chance to stay in that sweet state of mind until--

THUMP!

"Ow! Who the hell put this floor here! Last time I checked I was falling onto clouds!"

She had obviously been having a "What Goes Up..." nightmare, no thanks to Hiei, so she went into the bathroom to wake up more. She snatched her alarm clock off of the window seat and took it into the bathroom with her so that she could listen to the radio while she was in the shower. By the computer, it was 11:26 A.M.

She started the shower and tuned to a radio station where (1) "All About Us" by T.A.T.U was being played. As she stepped into burning hot water a peculiar thought crossed her mind. _Why the hell am I up this early anyway? Wait, no, it can't be! Reijin is dawn, Takara, midnight, which leaves just dusk and…noon._

"God damn it!" She yelled and kicked the wall.

That was a really bad move on her part, because she lost her footing and fell backwards into the shower curtain which got tangled around her and fell too. She screamed and hit the floor hard enough to wake up Meriel and Reijin who came rushing to her aid. All would have been well and good had not Jin been the reason Reijin got up there as fast as she did; she had him fly her to the third floor to reach her at the same speed as Meriel.

No one really knew right away what had happened, although the running water might have been a clue for these slow sleepyheads. The full situation hit Jin like a mountain tumbling down and he tried to leave the room as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. Once Meriel freed Cayenne of her shower curtain prison though, she tossed it aside and tripped him up as he tried to get out of the room, enough time for Cayenne to notice him. Their eyes locked. He froze. _Maybe...she won't...see me._

"DIE!"

Wishful thinking didn't save him; she went after him with the closest thing in reach: a bottle of pink, girlish smelling, bubble bath. It got all over the place and Jin went slipping and sliding out of the room with Cayenne hot on his heels. Being the Wind master that he was, he merely had to jump over the railing to escape her wrath. Cayenne was not about to give up. She ran back into her room, grabbed a video game case and threw it at him Frisbee style as he was busy trying to get the pink stuff off of his face. She hit her mark and he ducked for cover in the kitchen once again wondering, _how much longer 'til noon? _

Hiei entered the scene a few minutes later and saw Jin rinsing his head in the kitchen sink.

"Time to shift."

"Good luck," he spat, a little P.O.ed at Cayenne's temper, after all, he at least **tried** to get out of the room before being ambushed by pink goo.

A quick towel off and he was out of the house before Hiei could even question the situation. _Oh well, **I** haven't done anything except train, **I** still have a clean slate._ He walked toward the stairs and was about to call up to tell them that they had switched but noticed something under his foot. It was the game case Cayenne had thrown. He read the back and realized it was the game Cayenne was playing when they had first encountered—DDR.

Back with Cayenne, she had shooed Meriel and Reijin out of the room to make sure she would not explode on them. After a few deep breaths, she rooted around in her chest of drawers for clothes. Putting on the essentials first, she fished out a red tube top. _No, red is **not** the color I need now_. She swapped it with a green tank top with a lacy butterfly pattern over the breast area and got some blue jeans out before heading back to the bathroom.

After changing, she walked out and was surprised to see Hiei waiting for her.

"Don't you ever knock before coming into someone's room?" she asked irritably.

"Onna, what's this like?" he questioned and held up the game case.

"Oh, so that's the one I threw...well it's different from other games if that's what you're asking. You saw when you kidnapped me; it uses your entire body instead of just your hands."

"So...it'd be better than other games for training?"

"NO! YES! GAH! Don't ask me such a frustrating question!" She sighed, "Yes, it would, and it's fun but four hours in a row would exhaust me beyond belief so you'd better have a stretcher ready."

"Well that's why you're training, to become powerful without exhausting yourself too badly."

On that, he left the room and Cayenne was swept in an interesting thought. She thought about the people back home that she would always kill in DDR matches. Then she thought of how tired she would be afterwards. _To be powerful...but controlled? I do need help with self-control...and learning through a game I love might be fun._ With new inspiration, she set up the game, but instead of going straight to Heavy, she went to Endless mode on Light. _A steady, simple pace...perfect_, she thought.

After leaving Cayenne alone, Hiei suddenly felt a disturbance in the house. He jumped downstairs and checked the freezer. _No..._

"Onna! Where did you put it?"

He was talking to Reijin who was moving to sit on the couch and looked highly distrustful. He kicked the couch back a few feet and she landed on the floor which granted him her full and undivided attention.

"What are you talking about?" she groaned, "Oh, your "sweet snow"…I hid it so I can eat it later."

"What! Where is it?" He yelled and unsheathed his sword.

"Don't be silly, I know you aren't allowed to kill me, but if you can find it, you can keep it…good luck."

With that she climbed back onto the couch and watched the dozens of Hiei after images search the room, which one was real, which were fake, who could tell? Eventually she got dizzy, left the room, and came back with the carton of ice cream.

"Here, take it, just stop moving!"

Since she did not know exactly where he was she tossed it into the air and he appeared and caught it. She turned to walk upstairs but he suddenly materialized in front of her and held out the box.

"It's melted..." he stated and glared at her.

"Oh, I wasn't thinking about that," she toyed, "but…"

In Cayenne's room, the DDR fever had hit and she played hard until the fifty-fifth stage when she noticed how parched her throat was. She actually was not that tired since it was Light mode, but all the same she opened the door to go downstairs for a glass of water and collided with Reijin who was about to barge in.

"Hiei's taking us to Dairy Queen for ice cream!" she announced gleefully.

"Hiei's going to do **what** now?" Cayenne responded in shock, but got over it, "Awesome!"

It was after they awakened Meriel—Takara decided to continue sleeping—got ready, and made it halfway down the steps of the temple when they realized they had no means of transportation.

"Hiei, how exactly do you plan on getting us all there? Hell, how will we pay?" Reijin asked.

"I was given money in case of emergencies and as for getting there, I have an idea."

"This is an emergency?" Meriel questioned skeptically.

"Yes," Hiei responded forcefully, "and if it'll soothe your conscience any, here's your own shopping money," he said and handed her enough for at least two complete outfits.

"Whoo! Drop me off at the mall on your way to Dairy Queen, 'kay guys?"

"Hey! What about us?" Cayenne prodded.

"First of all, (2)** that one**" he pointed at Reijin, "will be lucky to get anything at all for melting the sweet snow at the mansion, and you're just coming along because **that one** invited you, and **that one** only gets money because it's a bribe, not a gift."

"Oh, lovely, and the ice cream is our bribe I'm guessing?"

"Precisely."

They reached the bottom of the hill and Hiei disappeared on them so they had no choice but to wait. About fifteen or twenty minutes later, a blue convertible drove up and Hiei was driving it. There was swerving and abrupt stopping indicating he was learning as he went.

"H-ha-holy crap," Cayenne stuttered, "what, did you steal this?"

"Kind of, I'll take it back when we're done; I don't think they'll miss it."

Some one clearly should have informed Hiei about road signs and signals, because once he got started driving, he did not stop—AT ALL. He slowed down just enough for Meriel to jump ship when the mall came into view, then it was just Cayenne and Reijin fearing for their lives. The police could not make it through the traffic jams to catch them, and when Hiei started driving on the sidewalks no one was about to stop them.

"They're like piñatas! When you hit them, stuff flies everywhere!"

"Yeah, if those mailboxes had minds of their own they would've run along with the people."

"This is such a Grand Theft Auto moment!"

"Definitely! M'kay…fun's over, hit the brakes Hiei, Dairy Queen's coming into view," Reijin told him.

"There are brakes?"

The girls' eyes widened.

"Of course there are brakes! How did you stop earlier?"

"I just let the car slow down on its own," he shrugged.

"What! Never mind, hit the brakes! No, it's that other pedal! Hurry, hit the brakes or we're going to hit—"

CRASH.

To quote from an anonymous source (Kerushi), "There goes another waitress."

* * *

Author's Notes:

(1)"All About Us" - Has that even been created yet? I'm not going to Google like crazy to find out what songs were made in 1996 and back for this fanfic so just go with it.

(2) **that one** - Hiei's official name for Reijin now that she has crossed the line and melted the precious sweet snow.

* * *

I'm not sure if that waitress died or just plain quit from the trauma…hm…I'll leave it to your imaginations. :D 


	4. It Was All A Big Accident!

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.

* * *

Chapter Four: It Was All A Big Accident!

* * *

A few days passed by, they were boring compared to the thing that happened with Dairy Queen. Henceforth, Hiei was never allowed alone with the girls ever again. Instead, Yusuke was pulled out of school to accompany him every time he had to watch them, though they were not sure that was much better. Kuwabara would have been with them too, but his sister would probably kill him if he skipped and did not pass so he was forced to stay in school. Sure, Keiko would be on Yusuke's case later for this, but it was not like that did not happen anyway and at least he showed up for half the day.

It was one of those days when they awoke at dawn to train, so no one was happy when Koenma called them in. It was news on the case though, they had found out who the ring leader demon that was after them was. He typed a few things in on his computer and a man's profile was pulled up on the screen.

* * *

Name: Raika

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Unknown, Makai

DOB: Unknown

Age: Some 400 years

Race: Demon

Ethnicity: Fire apparition

Complexion: Pale

Hair: Brunette, usually in a ponytail, mid-waist length, normal bangs

Eyes: Red

Height: 5'10"

Weight: Unknown

School: Homeschooled

Grade: N/A

Location: Unknown, Makai

Likes: Unknown

Dislikes: Unknown

Basic Personality: Unknown

Other: Unknown

* * *

"Well," Koenma coughed, "you can see we don't know that much about him except name, race, and looks, but at least now you know who to watch out for."

"Great," Takara started sarcastically," it's a good thing that only helps if we see him before he fries us."

Kurama sighed, "Guys like this always have a main group with flunkies, don't they? Do we know his main allies?"

"Unfortunately, no, Intelligence only got to talk to some of their minions; he has a tight-knit group controlling the minors though, about five to ten from what I can tell."

They headed back to the mansion in a slump. Almost all of them were tired, sleepy and kind of hungry and it felt like they were training to go up against the Makai mafia or something. The Dairy Queen thing was the biggest rush they had for a while and now that it was over, life was pretty dull.

"I am so looking forward to an early lunch right now--WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!" Meriel screamed.

Everyone ran into the house to see what she was talking about. The nearly every square inch was trashed, nothing broken or anything too severe, but whoever had been there obviously did not put any effort into covering their tracks. The guys immediately checked the hiding place for the girls' weapon boxes: Reijin's was missing.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me!" She yelled, "That's crap!"

She was about to run up to her room but Genkai said she should stay and help clean up. She sighed angrily and unleashed a quick blast of wind that lifted everything turned over or flipped upside down back to its rightful position and continued upstairs. When later asked if she wanted anything to eat she told them "no" through the door and stayed locked in.

After Takara ate, she went back up to her room to rest like the last time they trained early but could not get to sleep. She was too troubled over the intruder to do so. She sighed and turned on the black light, the effect it had on her purple-walled room was calming for her. She flopped on the king-sized bed and traced the rose pattern absentmindedly. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from the living room. She immediately jumped up, grabbed her trench coat out of the wardrobe, and ran downstairs for what could be her first big battle. Had the intruder(s) returned? What she and the others found was not quite what they expected.

A wall was knocked down and Reijin was outside looking extremely guilty and holding a strange looking staff. It was about three or four feet long and made of wood. There was a blue sphere on each end and crowning the blue sphere on the top was a green semicircle (not the shape that you would get if you shaded a circle, just the outline) with the ends curling into spirals.

"Reijin is that...?" Meriel started.

"But it was stolen!" Yusuke added.

"Actually," Hiei began, "the thief is right in front of us."

People looked confused but Reijin looked downward, fascinated by her shoes, while he explained further.

"Something didn't seem right about just one box being taken, so I took a look around outside. I found two guys I recognized from Dairy Queen running away from the mansion. She must have had them come while we were gone and make it look like one of the enemies had taken it, when she just took it for herself." He looked over at Reijin, "Tell me if I left anything out?"

"Mm…it was an accident?" she responded and poked her two pointer fingers together nervously.

"Reijin! I can't believe you did something so underhanded, just to go ahead and get your weapon," Takara growled, "okay, one of you wrestle it away from her, I'll watch."

"We can't" Kurama sighed, "once you receive your weapon your training with it has begun, there's nothing we can do to contain it again and it's bound to the owner so we can't take it away either."

Reijin had a mixed look of shame and total delight before Takara glared at her and started yelling again.

"And what do we do about the wall she collapsed?"

Reijin finally got her input, "With all of us working, it can't be that hard can it? What was it made of? Just wood and cement, wasn't it? Kurama uses plants so there's the wood factor, and you and Meriel can make cement easy, and then I can dry it real quick and—"

"No, no! You aren't having anything to do with this! You'll probably wreck it more."

"What! I knocked it down, at least let me help fix it!"

"Actually, Reijin," Jin told her, "it probably is a good idea if you sit this one out."

"Not you too," she sighed.

"Think. Kurama said you have to train with that weapon now, you barely knew how to control what power you had when you took it and now you're stuck with it. So, I guess you'll just have to sit tight until we can work this out," he reasoned.

She pouted for a moment until "fine" escaped her lips and went back upstairs to her room. Resisting the urge to slam the door behind her, she turned on her computer and listened to the song "Silly-Go-Round" from _.hack/Roots_. She got bored easily though, and decided to watch the others. She moved her vanity away from the corner and peeked through a small trap door in the wall; this was how she escaped her room to play with her weapon before totaling the living room wall gave her away.

She saw all of them working hard to repair the damage she had caused. _Most of them are probably thinking 'this is way too much trouble' but too bad, I offered to help._ Jin would not be needed to cool the cement until later and he was talking with Touya about something Reijin could not hear. Being the nosy creature that she was, she snuck downstairs to a nearby window and listened in.

"I swear, Touya, this is way too much trouble," he began.

_I knew it!_

He sighed, "If Koenma hadn't asked me to help I probably wouldn't have! Who knew she'd be the hardest to handle?" Reijin felt herself stop breathing, _what_?

"No kidding. Meriel's only a little older and she's not nearly as troublesome, then again, she's at least trained with a weapon before so I guess you have to take that into account…but from the way you tell it that doesn't count too much with your training sessions at all."

He continued, "Like you just said, aren't the youngest supposed to be the nice, obedient ones who always listen? Did you know, she came up with the Dairy Queen thing?"

"You're lying."

"No, I just wish she'd be a little bit more serious."

"You're one to talk about seriousness, you know?" Touya laughed.

_No way..._ She decided to make her stand here. This would stop now.

"So?" She rose up from her hiding spot and surprised the two of them, "Sorry for being such a challenge then," she left it at that and ran for her room before either of them could stop her.

"This is bad," Jin stated the obvious.

"You're right. If you want, I can try to talk to her for you."

"Would you?" he sighed, "Make it clear this is one big misunderstanding."

"Well, while I do that, think of a way to get her to talk to you again."

"Huh? How do you know she won't talk to me?"

"Think back on the conversation and what parts of it she probably heard."

"…You're right, there's no way she's speaking to me."

"From the way she heard things, you'll be lucky to survive that new weapon of hers tomorrow if you don't come up with something soon."

"Gee, thanks for the support," he ended bitterly.

Reijin sat in her room denying what she had heard. _Am I really that much of a pain? Practices…okay, so I'm not as focused on learning as I should be, but still! I'm troublesome, but the DQ thing was a one-time deal! I mean, until we get the chance to take advantage of Hiei again, that is._ A knock on the door jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Who's there?"

"It's Touya," he said through the door, "can I come in?"

_Lovely, nice try sending in a friend, Jin, but I'm not talking to him either! Well, I should, because they'll just send in Meriel or someone later, but I think I'll just sulk for a while now and let them feel like they're in trouble until dinner, at least._

"Go away! I'm not talking to either of you two, but do me a favor and don't try to send someone else up here until dinner at the earliest!"

She lay on the bed and smothered a pillow over her head so that she did not have to listen to any more attempts at being let into her room. He eventually gave up and left. Needless to say Jin was not too thrilled that she had gone into solitary confinement. They had to explain to everyone else that she did not want to be bothered, but decided to blame the living room incident instead of telling them what had really happened.

Later, when people started eating, Touya pulled Meriel aside to tell her what had gone on earlier when Reijin overheard them and asked her if she could talk to her for them. She agreed, finished up quickly, and excused herself to her room, but went to Reijin's instead.

Reijin had fallen asleep since she smothered herself in her pillow for so long. When Meriel knocked it was abrupt and surprised her. She looked outside and realized she had been sleeping for almost seven hours. She told Meriel to hold on for a moment and went to the bathroom to freshen up and dragged her pillow with her. It was a good thing too, because if she had not she did not think she would have made it back to her bed in time to contain the scream. She did not look like herself in the least.

"Um, Meriel," she opened the door a crack.

"Yeah, are you going to talk now?"

"I'd rather not, I'm sick," she lied.

"Sick?"

"Uh-huh, it's one of those heady-stomach things where you just don't feel good, nothing to worry about. I'm sure I'll be better in the morning."

"Okay then, rest some and I'll tell the others. You'd better not just be avoiding the issue though! Touya told me what happened, and I think you should really talk to them. They lied about why you're cooped up in here, by the way, said it was still recoil from breaking the living room."

"How manly of them," she replied satirically, "good night."

"Good night! Feel better, 'kay?"

She closed the door, locked it, took a deep, cleansing breath, and screamed into her pillow as loud as she could. After that was over, she ran back to the bathroom to take a better look in the mirror. Her short hair was grown out, almost an entire foot past her ears which were slightly pointed. Her eyes were not sweet amber anymore, but a bright red. Her body had gotten slimmer and the clothes she was wearing hung loosely. The most dramatic change though, was the small wings poking out of her back.

"This cannot be normal, even for me."

She decided the best thing to do would be to sleep and hope whatever caused her change would leave and she would be normal in the morning. All she could do herself was take scissors to her hair and cut it back to its original style.

The morning was not much better. Her hair had grown back and then some and all of it was about waist length. Not only that, but it had gotten blonder too. Her wings were bigger, her eyes redder and now she was as skinny as one of those snake-like super models. The reason behind it dawned as she was playing with her wings. _Of course! I'm Air, and taking the weapon must've forced some kind of change on me!_

It was about ten-ish when Meriel came to check on her. She lied again and said she was still sick. When asked what she would do for breakfast she answered that she was going to rest some more before getting anything to eat. After being left alone she sighed. _Never mind this,_ she thought, _it's obviously a side effect from not being able to handle my weapon. After they train and come back, I'll just sneak out, learn it all on my own, and come back normal. No one will ever know I sprouted wings_.

And that is exactly what she did. As she prepared to leave though, there was a small knock at the door. She coughed a little and asked who it was in a fake sick voice.

"It's me," came Jin's voice, "look, I know I'm probably not who you want to talk to right now," he started.

_Oh great, well, I have to hand it too him, it only took twenty-four hours to gather the courage to come talk to me himself._

"But," something red and slender was slid under the door, and he paused, "I know this might not mean much, but you didn't hear all of the conversation! When you're better come and talk to me."

She heard him leave the doorway. _What was there to hear? I'm not the ideal trainee and you were venting about me to your friend, big flipping deal, life will move on! I'll show you, I'll show them all._

She went into her closet to find something to wear. It was hard to find something that fit and let her wings stretch too. She settled with a sky blue top that tied behind her neck and had a yellow flower pin in the center and paired it with a darker blue jean skirt. She went into the bathroom and decided to pull her hair into two loose ponytails.

As she came out, she noticed the red thing Jin had slid under the door. It was a feather, probably from a (1) cardinal. She tucked it speculatively into one of her hair ties. Finally slipping on dark blue over-knee socks and black lace-up boots she took her staff and fled the mansion via the trap door.

As she headed behind the temple she thought of some of the minor demons they had trained against just beyond the building and then remembered Botan's warning against going back there alone. Smirking cockily she thought, _with my new weapon the small fry will be no problem, then I can move on to bigger fish._

Inside the mansion…

Cayenne sat downstairs on the couch with the TV on, though she was not really watching. Everyone was doing something random, most were eating lunch and talking and ultimately she joined the conversation and brought her thoughts to speech.

"Guys, I've been thinking," she began.

"Uh-oh," Takara interrupted.

"Shut up. Anyway, I've been thinking about Reijin. We made her feel really guilty about the living room thing," at this, Touya, Jin, and Meriel all exchanged knowing glances. "It's just not right! We did fix the wall easily and just because she wanted to further her training quicker, I don't think we should have reacted the way we did."

They took this to mind.

"She still stole her weapon though, and that wasn't the way to go," Hiei added.

"Yeah, well, I won't steal mine, I'll just ask. Can I have it now?"

They looked at her like she was nuts.

"In fact, I think we should all get ours. Maybe training with them all at once will help us understand how to use them better and we can help each other out!"

"…You don't want Reijin to have to train all alone, do you?" Meriel asked.

"Admit it, all of us working together would be a good idea, and if we approach it carefully and away from here, maybe, just maybe, we won't blow holes in the house!"

Takara burst out laughing, "There's a good way to put it, convincing too."

"Would you just piss off and get on my side Takara?" Cayenne smiled at her friend.

"Fine, fine, I'm in," she agreed, "what about you, Meriel?"

"Yeah, sure, why the hell not; I don't want to be the only one left out of the loop here!"

"Hey! We never said yes, you know that right?" Touya reminded them.

"Okay girls, I'll sit on Rinku and you guys take care of everyone else!" Takara joked.

"Hey!" Rinku yelled.

The guys were about to protest some more but Genkai spoke up, "It seems like they've made up their minds, and I have to say, I think if they're this determined…or just swinging blindly, whichever works…they must be ready. Not to mention, the weapons are technically theirs anyway."

So it was decided, training with their weapons would begin tomorrow. For one, it was to start immediately, and less cushy than it could have gone.

* * *

Author's Notes:

(1) cardinal - It was funny, my original idea for the feather was this, but I wanted a technical reason and looked up the shaman meaning for a cardinal, one of the meanings was "understanding the power of the wind" xD It was one of those co-inky-dink moments when I glared at fate and asked, "why couldn't you have told me this sooner?"

* * *

This was mostly a Reijin chapter, but Chapter Five will be different since, well, she's fled the mansion and the main story for the moment! XD I want to get into the minor characters I'm ignoring at the moment, Shishi, Chuu, etc. 


	5. Haunting Ground Part One, Something

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction. I don't own _Haunting Ground _either.

* * *

Chapter Five: Haunting Ground Part One, Something

* * *

No one heard from Reijin that night so they assumed that she was sleeping and did not bother her in case they invoked her wrath. Cayenne and the others were all allowed to get their weapons that night so they could familiarize themselves with them. Hers was a sword: the end of the blade was tipped red to make a triangle; there was a red triangle on the hilt too. She did not play with it too much, wind was one thing but fire could be disastrous, so it was just sitting against her wall while she played _Haunting Ground_ for PS2.

The room was dark and she was sitting rather close to the TV. She listened to the music carefully because that was what this game was all about, if the music went away then the enemy was not far and at this point in the game, she did not like to be too particularly close to her enemy.

She moved her character, Fiona, into a small room where a stuffed chimera was and retrieved the item in its mouth. She gasped sharply as Fiona turned to leave and a (1) luminessant came through the door and hit her which caused slight panic and made the music immediately stop. _Shit…oh well, I should have time to get to a hiding spot before (2) Daniella comes._

Wrong!

"HOLY GOD-FORSAKEN HELL!"

She suddenly put the screen on pause and took in the image before her. Daniella, the enemy, was right beside the door as she came out, giant glass shard poised as a sword held high in the air, ready to come down on Fiona any moment. She breathed deeply, took it off pause, used a step back maneuver and then ran for all her character's worth. A few halls later and she found (3) Hewie, her white German shepherd companion and ordered him to attack Daniella as she made her way towards a couch in the next room.

She made it in time to slide under the piece of furniture and waited on edge for Daniella to make her entrance into the room for her search. The camera angle changed to Fiona's P.O.V. under the couch and Cayenne held her breath and listened to the music indicating her enemy was not far. Styptic beats and Daniella's raspy breathing mixed in with the "Something Lacking" theme irked her beyond belief as she waited.

As what seemed like an eternity ended the Daniella character made her way past the couch and stopped before she reached the door. She stood for a moment, turned around, and looked under the couch.

"Crap!"

The words "Flee!" appeared on the screen and she called on Hewie and ran out the door Daniella should have left out of in her opinion. Hewie did his job as she made her way towards the Jupiter puzzle and took the Room of Deception. The normal music came back as she went through the door but she decided to hide in the wardrobe anyway in case she came back. I can tell you right now that that was the worst move she could have possibly made.

She opened the wardrobe door and the music was back as loud as could be. She was momentarily confused, until Daniella stepped out of the wardrobe and came after her. She paused and screamed.

"What the holy freaking fuck!"

Suddenly, the door was thrown open and hit the wall with a resounding smack! And no, this was not on the video game either. She "meeped" and rolled under her bed quick as lightning. Footsteps got closer until they were right beside the bed and the next thing she knew she was staring at bright red eyes. Only one word ran through her mind: _Flee! _

"(4) O.M. Fucking G!"

She pushed past the confused figure and ran to Meriel's room and explained what happened in a mad panic before both of them retreated into Takara's room. That only lasted a short while when Cayenne saw her wardrobe and threw a fit; so they hightailed it to the stairs.

"So, tell me again, why are we running for our lives?" Takara asked, she did not quite grasp Cayenne's insane ranting earlier.

"Because Psycho Maid Daniella is down the hall!"

"Alright-y then…let me pretend for a moment that I believe you, what's your evidence?"

"Door slams open, I go under bed, searching, red eyes, fleeing and now I'm just trying to get out of the vicinity as quick as possible!"

"Damn…you got that much huh?" Takara said doubtfully.

As they reached the door to the steps, Cayenne's mysterious figure reappeared in front of them and blocked the path, this time wielding a very Daniella-like weapon.

"And now there's the glass shard!" Cayenne yelled hysterically and ran the figure over to get to the stairs.

Meriel and Takara followed suit and they got halfway to the first floor when Meriel started to run out of breath and in a gasp yelled out, "HEWIE!" as if to call on the virtual canine.

Takara and Cayenne fell into fits of laughter and collapsed on each other in a domino effect and the three girls tumbled the rest of the way to the living room. They received baffled looks and glances from the people present while all different ideas came to mind. Meriel jumped behind the couch, Takara hid behind the open door, and Cayenne ran into the kitchen to prepare a counterattack. She scrambled around looking for her weapons of choice, _I always wondered what would happen if we were in H.G. and actually had access to the kitchen. _She thought back on the time when she went into the kitchen during the game and cast a downhearted glance at the knives her character was not allowed to pick up.

"Yes! I have obtained (5) magnesia!" she whooped happily and ran back to the foot of the stairs to set her trap.

Slowly, the figure from her room made its way down the steps. Almost immediately after it stepped into the light though, Cayenne jumped from her place behind the counter to try to warn her victim, but it was too late.

BLAM!

Cayenne's makeshift magnesia—a Fourth of July deluxe firework jammed inside a lime meringue pie—exploded and a very creamy Hiei stood before them. Everyone collapsed into peels of laughter and they were still laughing through all the murderous glares aimed in their directions. Hiei honestly could not blame them, who would take him seriously covered in pie? So, with that reasoning, he turned all of his anger towards Cayenne.

"Onna," he growled.

"Um, um, um!" She yelled frantically, "Now before you do something I might regret, you had this coming! Just what the hell was up with you scaring us half to death anyway?"

"You were the one screaming, I just came up to check on you," he corrected.

"…Huh?" _To…check on me?_

"I…lost at Janken," he glared at Yusuke and Kurama whom he had lost against when they decided just who would be the victim to enter the third floor domain. _Ah, now it makes sense._

"So, what were you screaming about?" Kurama aimed the question at Cayenne.

"_Haunting Ground!_" She then realized she had left the game on pause in a very perilous situation, "Ah! That's right! That freaking teleporting psycho maid Daniella was in that freaking closet from freaking hell!"

She hurried back to her room to finish up another chase, save, and then brought the game system downstairs to show everyone.

"This" she began, "is _Haunting Ground_, survival horror if I've ever seen it."

They gathered around her as she started her file. Fiona Belli, she pointed out, was kidnapped and had to go through a series of puzzles and fights to escape from her hell of a mansion. Right now she had to solve the Jupiter Room puzzle. She explained that she had just found out you could not hide in the Room of Deception wardrobe as, someway, somehow, Daniella was in there. She walked her character to the Room of Truth and asked those closest to the TV to memorize the room the best they could, as she would have to point out three differences in the Room of Deception.

"What the hell! There's no way she can pull that off!"

Upon entering the room, she saw Daniella, poking the fire with a fire poker and not paying any attention to Fiona at all.

"Maybe she has an item for you?" Meriel suggested.

"Hm…could be…"

She moved Fiona toward Daniella and pressed the examine button. The screen went dark and faded into a cut scene where suspenseful music played; Daniella slowly turned to face them, and held the fire poker toward Fiona threateningly. It faded back to normal and Daniella advanced upon Fiona with her new weapon; Cayenne paused.

"ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME?"

Laughter erupted again and Meriel managed to get out, "Cayenne, you really do suck at this game. With your luck I can see why you scream so often."

"Hey! You told me to talk to her, remember? Now sit back and watch me work."

She called on Hewie, ran to the Room of Deception, made sure the music was still going, and then hid in the Daniella-free wardrobe. Daniella came in, examined a few things that called her fancy, then left the room to search elsewhere.

Cayenne sighed and moved Fiona out of the wardrobe before pausing again, "So, who sees the differences?"

"Human figures," "hourglass," and "chessboard" were the responses she got, if they did not count Daniella's move from the fireplace into the wardrobe.

The game went on for quite a while, until she was almost to the boss battle. She saved and decided those were enough frightening experiences for a while. Her audience, however, did not agree. Kurama and Touya had been plotting while the others watched the game, save for Hiei who was trying to rid himself of the pie.

"You girls do remember you train at midnight tonight, right?" Touya started.

"Yes," were the wary responses.

Those two were the smart ones. Those two plotting could not end well.

"Well, we decided it would be a good idea if," the girls prepared to run if need be," we recreated some of the situations in that game for training. Oh, and by the way, you won't be able to use your powers either."

That was like tying both hands behind their backs, strapping a backpack full of rocks to them, and telling them to run as fast as they could downhill and oh, by the way, do not get flattened by this oncoming avalanche either.

"I'm sorry, there must have been something in my ear, I thought you said we can't use our powers," Takara said.

"Oh that's exactly what I said."

"What! Why!"

"Face it, you're all bound to your weapons now and if something should happen you'll need to fight normally or at least know how to hide in an enemy-free closet."

"That was cruel, Kurama," Cayenne glared knives at him.

Anyway, they had to decide character roles for this first. It turned out something like this: Yusuke would be (6) Debilitas, a big brute from before the Daniella episode. Hiei was suggested as Daniella from the previous incident, but they considered him too short and so they settled on Kurama. They probably would not have time for the second half of the game so they assigned side roles. Hiei would be the luminessants since he was good at popping up all over the place. Touya created Daniella's glass shard from ice and then hooked up a makeshift speaker system to blare the game's music from the house. Last, but not least, Jin got to be the girls' ever faithful talking Hewie.

Yusuke was sent out into the forest behind the temple to wander aimlessly as Debi would have done. Ten minutes later, Cayenne, Meriel, and Takara did rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go in first. The results are as follows: Meriel won with paper vs. Cayenne and Takara's rocks. Cayenne vs. Takara was another paper-rock throw with Takara being the victor. Cayenne took a quick breath and entered the forest. Five minutes later, Takara joined the game next and was soon followed by Meriel who quickly picked up a stick in case she needed to beat Yusu-Debi later.

They took selected tasks from the game during the Debi saga. First, they had to successfully hide from Yusuke once, Cayenne found this surprisingly easy whereas Takara was found a total of three times before she kicked him in the shin and made it seem like she ran in one direction, when she really dove into the tall grass nearby. Meriel was only found once, but he decided to leave her alone after she almost amputated one of his arms that got too close.

The girls eventually met up at one end of the woods and discussed their game plan. They needed to gather "plate-keys" that were basically wooden cards with words on them hung strategically around the forest: There was EMETH, METH, SALTATIO, and REST. Since they did not have Reijin, they decided to forget the EMETH key and go with METH which Meriel was sent after. SALTATIO was Takara's assignment and Cayenne went for REST. The keys were all marked with certain energy tabs courtesy of Botan; it was up to them to sense and find them.

Cayenne was rooting around in the brush looking for REST when she heard Yusuke coming in her direction. _Duh! We have to use our own energy to seek out the plates, like magnets, so Yusuke's going to be hunting us by it!_ She immediately toned it down a notch so that she could not even feel the REST key's presence anymore and buried herself in the thorny undergrowth. It was not long after that when Yusuke strolled by. He was confused, but she could tell he knew he lost her signal somewhere in that area. She remained quiet as a mouse until his leave, but yanked a vine in his path and tripped him so that he landed in the thorns and cursed loudly. She contained a snicker and just her luck; there was REST beside the vine she had tugged. She snatched it up and ran back to their meeting place. _Why can't I be this lucky in the actual game?_

Meriel wandered little from their rendezvous point, but that did not make getting the keys any easier. Reijin was the climber, not her, and they happened to be suspended at the top of a very high tree. She could not use her powers to create a geyser or anything to make her upscale trip easier, so she resolved to climb steadily and refused to look down. _If only I were a bird, or maybe a cat. Wait just a minute…I remember this!_

_Flashback—_

"Look closely, Meriel," Touya directed her attention towards some half-demolished ice dummies, "you've struck each of them in the same places."

"So?"

"So, the enemy will come to expect your attacks. Try imagining yourself as your opponent, evaluate your previous attack and whatever you think you should do next, don't and do something different. You have to be unexpected or you'll get trapped."

"Then," she pondered this for a moment," I should feel out my enemy's senses?"

"Yes, now try again," he finished and whipped up some new practice dummies for her to attack.

—_End Flashback_

_A cat…if I try to feel out a cat's senses, will I be able to imitate them too?_ With this thought in mind, about halfway up the giant tree, she found a considerably wide branch and crouched as similar to a cat as she could feel. In a leap of faith—literally—she sprung from her position to a branch higher up…

…And made it!

_No flipping way…if I'd missed that…_ She looked down. _I'm…going to avoid that thought for now and keep going for the keys._ She repeated the process and soon found herself at the top of the tree where a giant bird's nest was. It seemed to be abandoned, and the two keys were resting in it. _Cool! I need to remember this as an evasion point later._

She pocketed both keys and made to leave. _Now I just need to get down and…_ She gulped at the sight of the distance from the ground. _Maybe I'll just shimmy down instead of making flying jumps this time._

On her climb downwards, though, she hit an obstacle. Yusu-Debi emerged below her, way too close to the tryst and herself in her opinion. She was stuck; if she snapped a branch then she would be caught and she could not risk meeting Cayenne and Takara with Yusuke around. She sat down to think and put her hands into her pockets. As she fiddled with the two plate keys, an idea made itself known. Since they technically only needed one she withdrew the key labeled EMETH. In the game, it made the stone figure, Emeth, move from his place blocking an important door. If the player used METH, however, he would crumble and the (7) obsidian choker would be obtained.

Assuming that warding away Hiei would be a plus of using METH, she made a judgmental decision and threw EMETH as far away as she could. Yusuke heard it strike a tree and immediately took off in that direction looking for his prey and while he did so, she took her chance and hopped branches the rest of the way down and hurried back to meet the other two.

Cayenne ran towards her laughing to herself, and Takara looked like she went through a carwash with the hood down—twice. No questions were asked; they just concentrated on following the REST plate key's magnetic signal toward the "bathroom" evasion point they would use next time Yusu-Debi showed himself.

"Okay, we're here," Takara pointed out, brushing a wet strand of hair from her face, "what evasion point is there?"

"In the game, it's a shower curtain," Cayenne stated.

"So then, would all this moss be relevant?" Meriel moved behind some that was hanging from a tree.

"Yeah, I guess so, and look! It's everywhere! Kind of like a maze within a maze huh?" Takara noticed.

"It's better than the game, I can say that much," Cayenne added, "So now what?"

Meriel walked back to them and smiled, "We get our Hewie."

The next events over the course of an hour were the girls obtaining Jin as their Hewie, and having a considerable amount of fun ordering him about before getting him to find a doll they needed as a key into a new area. They narrowly escaped a pitfall trap but ran into Yusuke on the other side of it and had to recede back to the mossy "bathroom" section. Mazes were not his strong suit and they soon lost him and made their way back across the trapped area, past a large tree with a hollow in it, noting it as the "closet from the nursery" and moving onward.

They came into a clearing with wooden sculptures abundant and dubbed it the "Diorama Hall." They got so caught up in examining and finding certain items with the "medallions" they had picked up along the way, no one was watching when a) Takara slipped and fell down a dirt cliff side and b) Yusu-Debi burst into the clearing.

They got "Hewie" to stall and tried to find a less steep part to slide down. They wasted too much time though, and time was limited in their training version of the game. "Hewie" could only stall for so long until they were on their own. Cayenne panicked and hit the dirt before rolling under a nearby log leaving Meriel to run for her life and figure something out on her own.

With Takara at the bottom of the dirt ledge, she sat up and listened to her friends' frantic screams and scrambling with amusement. _Ha, well at least I'm safe down here_. She thought about what accomplishments needed to be made before she could make her way back up the side of the overhanging.

An hour later…

_Flowers, check. Bisque doll, check. Lunar refractor, check. Okay then, now to meet up with the others. I can only pray they've accomplished the rest without me._

She went through a bunch of crap to get the "lunar refractor," seeing as the other's had their "Hewie." Fifteen minutes of hacking away at a crumbling stone wall was not how she had wanted to go about things. She made it back to the upper level and assumed the trace for the final puzzles that took place before the Debilitas boss battle, which had been activated when she had found the items because her friends were no where to be found. She followed it and saw that the block puzzles had been solved. Making her way across the "Road of Darkness" puzzle she giggled at the sight of Yusu-Debi running around in circles after her two friends and watched Meriel shine a hand mirror in his eyes. _Damn it, I guess I didn't need to bring them the lunar refractor after all. Well that's crap._ She joined their game and it became an all out frenzy. In the middle she had them pass her the key to the "Saturn Door" and left them to their fun.

As she prepared to get ahead of the rest of them, she forgot a crucial point in the game: when Daniella stopped Fiona to take her back for dinner which began a new saga. A cold voice behind her stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Dinner is served miss."

She slowly turned around and a small chibi-ish voice above her expressed her thoughts aloud, "Great Kami! It's Kura-Dani! Get in the car!"

* * *

Author's Notes:

(1) Luminessant - These are floating balls of blue light that chase Fiona because she smells like Azoth, when they break they cause panic and alert the nearest enemy of your location.

(2) Daniella - Psycho Maid Daniella! Wikipedia her, there's too much to say here.

(3) Hewie – the faithful dog companion Fiona receives in the game, she would not have made it without him, bless his virtual soul.

(4) Ha ha, Cayenne cusses like a sailor.

(5) Magnesia - A green crystal-like item in the game that you set and it explodes on contact.

(6) Debilitas – a retarded failed clone of a later character, Riccardo. He chases Fiona, eager to hug the life out of the life-sized "dolly."

(7) Obsidian choker - This lowers Fiona's azoth radiation, which is what the luminessants seek her out by.

* * *

That was another anonymous quote from Kerushi. Although, originally it was: "Jesus Christ! It's a bee! Get in the car!" 


	6. Haunting Ground Part 1 Point 5, Lacking

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction. I don't own _Haunting Ground _either.

* * *

Chapter Six: Haunting Ground Part 1 Point 5, Lacking

* * *

"Double what the hell!" 

She backed as far away from Kura-Dani as possible and looked above her. What she saw might have surprised her more than Kurama standing in front of her in Daniella's complete ensemble, although she could not tell if his hair had been dyed purple or not.

A chibi girl, no bigger than her fist, hovered in the air above them with full, white, bird-like wings; her eyes shone green in the moonlight. She had short brown hair parted in the middle with some longer strands braided together on the right. Her clothes were smaller than most dolls; she wore punk schoolgirl fashion and had a doll the size of Takara's fingernail in her possession.

"Who…and what in the heck are you?"

"Oh! Sorry about that!" The girl apologized, "My name is Tiaret and I'm here to help you!"

"You sound like a sales person with that line. Don't say it again. And what was with the "get in the car" thing?"

"Just a random phrase I like to use. Anyway, I was sent by Master Ariel to help you with—"

"OH MY—"

She was cut short by the appearances of Meriel and Cayenne. They took one look at Kurama and fell to the ground clutching their guts.

"Whoa, whoa, wha-ha ha…what happened Kurama? Lose a bet?" Cayenne got out.

He returned her daggers from earlier that evening.

"Well, it was either me or Kuwabara in this dress, if you'd rather have him I can easily go back and cha—"

"NO!" they shouted and latched onto his arms.

"Well, there's something you don't see everyday. People hugging Psycho Maid Daniella, interesting," Takara pointed out to them.

"AH!" they screamed and immediately unattached themselves from him.

"You know," Tiaret began," I've been watching for a while, and now the mood's completely ruined from all this laughter. Why'd you have to go and dress up Kurama?"

"So now this is my fault?"

"Yep," all four said simultaneously, "wait, who are you?" Meriel asked Tiaret.

Takara introduced her and said she was sent by some "Master Ariel."

"Hey, a second ago you said you were sent here to help me do something, what was it?"

"Erm…I forgot!"

"Well, that's helpful," Takara said sarcastically, "anyone up for finishing this tomorrow?"

They all agreed and made their way back to the temple, leaving Yusuke behind. Kurama insisted that he could find the way back on his own, in other words, there was no way he would catch a glance of himself dressed as Daniella. He managed to disappear from them as they neared the others and they assumed he was making his own path back to the mansion and they did not blame him one bit.

It was surprisingly quiet back at the house. When they came in Kurama was un-Danified and sitting on the couch finishing a book. He told them the others were helping Yusuke out of something involving toothpaste, a lighter, and a plague of one thousand mutant goldfish. Meriel and Cayenne snickered and crept upstairs grinning evilly. Takara sighed and walked over to the fridge looking for goodies.

She opened it and, "QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM!"

Kurama fell to the floor and exclaimed, "What's in there! What happened?"

"COOKIE DOUGH!"

"Oh" he laughed, "of course."

"Hey, hey," she started over excitedly after her fourth piece, "wanna do something fun?"

"Like…?"

"Daniella and luminessants versus Cayenne and Meriel, right here, right now."

"I get to be a luminessant!" Tiaret shouted happily.

"Wouldn't we need to go back to the forest for that?"

"Heh heh heh, see, that's where you're wrong, my dear Kura-Dani, we used the forest for the Debi thing because it had enough twists and turns. In the Daniella saga it's mostly running around in the same rooms completing puzzles."

"Oh, I get it; we do have seven floors to ourselves until the others get back."

"So, we're doing this?"

"Oh yes, I'm especially looking forward to the Jupiter Room puzzle," he grinned sadistically; he was having too much fun with this.

The other two were safely tucked away in Cayenne's room, once again playing _Haunting Ground_. They had left off at the boss battle. It was all about timing, she had to get Hewie to attack while she was beside one of four blocks. She needed to move the blocks to a certain position while Hewie stalled for her, but she couldn't ignore him if he got too tired and needed to be fed or praised. In short, the three main factors were timing, speed, and keeping her companion alive.

She skillfully finished Daniella off quickly and it went to a cut scene. Daniella was spinning happily but shrieking loudly at her reflection. The dome's glass roof shattered sending shards falling everywhere. It was all mystical to her up until a final piece pierced her through her middle section. A low, drawn out "no" escaped her mouth as she slid down it somewhat. Lastly, before death, a smile graced her lips.

"Well, that was interesting, on to Riccy!"

Cayenne was talking of the next enemy, Riccardo. He was weak physically but was also fast and carried a gun. Not that it mattered, his aim sucked. Fiona could be in pointblank range and he would shoot over her shoulder. Whenever he missed too much though, he would attack Hewie which seriously pissed Cayenne off.

But before she could start the new saga, Takara called them downstairs for something. She shrugged and paused as they obliged her request. No one was around and they turned to go back up to play the game but something stopped them. It was just an eerie feeling behind them. Even so, Meriel slowly spun to see Kura-Dani, back in action, staring them down, and inexplicitly every stereo in the house blared "Something Lacking."

Cussing the whole way to the second floor, they turned into a random room and ran into somebody. Resisting the urge to yell and give away their position, Meriel looked up from the floor to see Suzuki.

"That was unexpected. Anyway, welcome to the (1) synthesis room, girls."

"No flipping way! That means Kura-Dani can't get us in here!"

Cayenne jumped up from the floor and yelled, "Quick! Give us fairy earrings!"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about," he moved in front of a desk with some unknown materials on it.

"MORGAN! Now give us fairy earrings!" They yelled in unison.

Pop!

The materials spontaneously changed form into a pair of fairy-shaped earrings.

"What the—how the hell did you do that? I've been trying to get those raw materials to change form for days!"

"We said the codeword, duh," Cayenne told him and rushed toward the shiny jewelry, "Dibs!"

"Huh? NO!" Meriel screamed and lunged for them but was too late.

"Ha ha, you'll have to get something else, Meriel," Cayenne grinned at her.

"Grr…fine, ADAMAS!"

Another "pop" was heard in a nearby drawer. Upon searching it, Meriel uncovered a diamond choker.

"Yes! Hello, doubled stamina!"

"I don't get it, how does a simple cryptograph change these compounds?" Suzuki wondered aloud.

"Well, it's the way it works in the game. Hey, you don't think…?" Cayenne looked skeptically at Meriel.

"Nah," they both said at once.

In a castle in Europe…

"Why won't the MORGAN plate key work?" Fiona disappointedly stared at the item in question.

Back at the mansion…

"I should warn you before you go, a lot of the doors are locked now, only the ones being used for your, er, game are open, except the ones you need keys for, which will have symbols on them."

"Okay! We're off then!"

They left the safety of Suzuki's work chamber, also now known as the synthesis hole.

"Where…do we go first?" Meriel asked.

"Well, after Daniella chases you the first time like Kura-Dani just did, you have to lure a luminessant to a lamp that reveals a hidden door."

"Great! How do we get a luminessant?"

"If we try to go to the third floor I bet Takara will be there."

"Yeah, she's probably waiting to scare us too."

They traveled up the second flight of stairs plotting what to do when they saw Takara. Technically they could not do anything to a luminessant, but Takara could oh-so-accidentally trip on her way down the stairs.

And that's exactly was she did, as she jumped from the opened doorway at them they stomped loudly on either side of the door. Confused as to what was happening, it distracted her long enough for her to trip and tumble to the second floor. The other two mischievously made their ways past her to the third floor with her bounding in pursuit. She was slow in comparison; luminessants bobbed up and down, so to mimic this she had to skip.

They led her effectively into a room where a circle she needed to stand in was. Only when they lured her into it with a Dr. Pepper and two Nutter Butters did they realize exactly what she was wearing. She nearly pummeled them for laughing as hard as they did.

Since Kura-Dani was forced to run around in Psycho Maid Daniella's ensemble, he made her dress in a shiny, light blue, Lolita dress. It seemed that revenge was abundant in this game. For fear of unnatural deaths, the two quickly dashed to the fourth floor. Going through the first door they unlocked, they knew it was the copy of the I Want My Mummy Passage because an oversized doll was placed on a couch.

"Where's the closet? We should have a closet to hide in," Meriel stated.

"Oh well, things can't be perfect. C'mon, the next room should connect to the bathroom and the Caged Off Room."

She was right, obsession paid off. A door connected to a bathroom which they could assume connected to the duplicate of the Caged Off Room. Hanging on the shower curtain were three plate keys. As Cayenne reached up to grab them one, MERCURY, slipped over the curtain and into the tub.

"Go on ahead Meriel, just let me grab…this…one," she paused and stared into emerald eyes, "oh shit…RUN!"

Yes, Kura-Dani was waiting in the bathtub to surprise them. To make matters worse Takara was waiting in the hallway for them. Cayenne was the distraction for Kura-Dani and Meriel tried several doors with Takara hopping after her. Finally, she found one that opened and called to Cayenne. They rushed in and Meriel dived under the first couch she saw. Cayenne saw no where convenient and hurried into an adjacent room.

Kura-Dani quickly followed and had to pick one. To Meriel's relief, he walked through the room and into the next one. He thought it would be easy to catch Cayenne off guard and struggling since that room was old and dusty. The only piece of furniture was a small chest of drawers. Smirking, he walked slowly and dramatically towards it. At a total change of pace he swiftly pushed it away from the wall to reveal…

…Dust bunnies.

_What the…? Oh well._ He left to hunt down Meriel who would have no doubt left her hiding place in search of a more favorable one. Almost as soon as he exited the room and, in spirit of Daniella's OCD, closed the door behind him, the chest of drawers began to shake violently. Coughing from the dirt, Cayenne popped out of the lowermost drawer with a key in hand. _If he ever makes me do anything like this again, I don't care about the rules; I'll suffocate that damned drag queen._

She met up with Meriel in the next room. Surprisingly, she figured out Kura-Dani's thinking and stayed where she was. When Cayenne showed her the key she had found, she was baffled.

"A key? I don't remember that in the game."

"Me neither, but it looks old so I don't think it was put there on purpose."

"Ooh! Let me figure out where it goes! I've been checking out all the rooms so far anyway."

"Okay, just watch out for Takara and all her sparkly evilness."

"'Kay, you solve puzzles and I'll collect items during my search and save them for the boss battle."

"Alright, meet back here if I whistle."

"If I hear it, but I'll make no promises."

So, the girls split up and Cayenne went after the key items. The first puzzle was the Fury of the Serpents. She had to take the three keys from earlier and place them in the proper positions to reveal a new path. _I wonder how they managed to make…the pillar…of fire…_ She stopped short in a room with a Merry-Go-Half-Round. It was somewhat demented, half of a miniature merry-go-round, like the kinds that are in front of Wal-Mart's and such, was placed in the center of the room. One of the heads was crumbling off and she quickly moved to the next room.

It was like before, with a bathroom acting as a hallway. Inside she was surprised to find Tiaret waiting for her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm a luminessant! Whee!"

"Hell!"

She ducked and ran into the nearby room. _Well, that answers that._ There was an orange ladder in the middle of the room. She tried to climb it to see what would happen and it collapsed, and then reformed. She saw three ropes hanging from the ceiling and attached the plate keys to them. They pulled on something that released a shimmering blue liquid onto the ladder. She tested it again: it held her weight. _Tricky, a part of me would actually like to know how they did this_.

"Freaking hell!"

Almost as soon as she got up she jumped back down, Kura-Dani was up there. _How does he...? Oh yeah, he's supposed to be imitating Daniella._ Very soon, she was caught and "killed."

"Hey, did we ever designate any save points?" Kurama asked casually.

"I don't think so…you are NOT making me do that again!"

Cayenne held firm in her claim and insisted she wanted sleep before sunup. She went to whistle for Meriel, but got no answer.

"Huh…I wonder which room she's in."

"HA! I've found you!" Takara yelled from down the hall.

Before Cayenne had the chance to explain that they had officially put the game on hold, she was within tackling distance. She stopped short when, for the second time that night, she heard a voice from above.

"No! Leave Cayenne alone!"

Fire suddenly manifested itself in the hallway and Takara had to backstep to keep from being burned.

"What in all hells was that!"

It was another chibi. This one had spiky feathered wings as opposed to Tiaret's more fluffy ones. Her hair was short, blonde, and had two pigtails stuck in it and her eyes were a raging red. She had on loose cargo pants with flip-flops and her shirt read "3y3 PwN U." She was staring madly at Takara.

"The game's over, dummy, now go away!"

Cayenne snatched her out of the air before Takara could use her in table tennis.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down; now, who are you?"

"Oh, me? I'm Michon and I was sent by Master Michael…"

"Another Master? Who the heck are these guys anyway?" Takara questioned irritably.

"Hey Takara! Didja get her? Oh! Michon! You've made it!" Tiaret squealed.

"You'd better believe I've made it! Have you told them about our mission yet?"

"No, truth be told, I forgot it," Tiaret grinned sheepishly.

"I can't leave you alone for a minute can I? Well anyway, our mission is to—wait, where is everyone?"

"Eh heh heh heh, you see, what had happened was," Cayenne chose her words carefully, "they're all unwinding from training."

Michon sighed, "Then I guess we should wait until everyone's around to hear."

"Does that mean we can sleep now?" Takara asked.

"Ch-ya, I'd like to see someone stop us."

Forgetting about the "Masters," mission and Meriel, Cayenne and Takara took the little sprites to their rooms and passed out.

On the seventh floor…

Meriel struggled with the last door. If the key did not work with this one then she was out of luck and all her searching would have been in vain. She slowly turned it to the right and was soon rewarded with a "click." Her happiness plummeted when she saw that nothing was in the room except dust and a few cobwebs that spiders had abandoned long ago.

"Grr…you have to be kidding me!" she yelled and looked up in anger.

Then, she noticed a thin square was outlined in the ceiling. An almost invisible string trailed down in front of her and she hurriedly yanked it. A trap door was revealed and stairs dropped down. She crept up them at a curbed pace. At the top was a nearly spotless attic, deeply contrasting with the room she came from. _The closet…_ She smiled; it was like the unofficial hiding place in _Haunting Ground_, the closet that was a neglected setting piece earlier that evening. She wandered aimlessly, wondering what to do next, when she saw a window seat with a thin blanket on it.

As she laid down on it, an exhausted expression on her face, she heard a voice beside her.

"It pretty, right? The pink clouds beside the rising sun?"

"You're right…what in the?"

Hello, fairy She had little bat wings with long, curly black hair covering them. Her eyes were blue and she wore a Gothic Lolita style kimono with the bow in the front. She smiled and introduced herself as Talli.

"I'm a sprite, and like the others I've been sent to help further your training, my Master is Gabriel."

"Alright…hey, I've been wondering this for a while, is this because we've gotten our weapons?"

"Yes, that's precisely it. Our Masters felt you would need our help but," she paused.

"But, what?"

"But, it doesn't feel like we're all here, haven't you seen Pink anywhere?"

"Who's Pink?"

"She was sent by Master Raphael to Arabelle, considering she took her weapon first I would have expected her here by now."

"Ara...? Oh, well Reijin's been sick for a few days now, she hasn't come out of her room," she stated, temporarily misrecollecting her friend's real name.

"What? That's impossible; at this stage it's almost impossible for you to contract a simple human illness!"

"So, Reijin's been playing hooky all this time! Remind me to get her when I wake up," Meriel swore.

"I still feel odd, it really feels like we're only three-fourths here," Talli expressed before both of them fell asleep in the strangely clean attic under the rising sun.

* * *

Author's Notes: 

(1) Synthesis room – these handy little places are where Fiona does alchemy to get items during the game. The enemies can't get in, but she can't hide there either when they're after her.

* * *

It was hell trying to get that last horizontal rule right. . I haven't worked on this in a while now…onward to chapter seven! 


	7. Scary

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.

* * *

Chapter Seven: Scary

* * *

Cayenne rolled uncomfortably in her sleep. Something very plush-like was annoying her. Frustrated, she reached behind her and grabbed the slender fur piece and gave a hard yank. 

"AIE!"

Pain shot through her spine as she was jerked from the bed and onto the floor. When she put her hand up to rub her head, she felt something fluffy and triangular. _No way!_ With one quick glance at the object in her hand, she saw that it was attached to her lower back. That was all it took to get her up and out of the room in a panic at an unnatural speed, even for her.

"Hey, everyone! You won't believe what—AHH!"

A careless misstep sent her flying over the railing. Even Chuu was not drunk enough to overlook the teenager bouncing off of the couch and landing right-side up in the middle of the living room.

"—happened! I've turned into a cat girl!"

There was an awkward silence. It was the calm before the storm.

"Well…that does explain the ears and tail," Rinku stated.

Suddenly, everyone was thrown into a flurry. Yusuke was shouting over a communicator at Koenma, a good portion of the group was asking her questions like "When did this happen? How did this happen?" and the favorite, "Do these come off?" always followed by pulling at her new appendages. The other portion decided to retreat to the kitchen, seeing as it was an opportune moment to steal any good food that there might be.

"What do you mean you don't know what's happening?" Yusuke shouted angrily, "One of the girls just spontaneously sprouted a tail! That can't be normal can it?"

"Yusuke, shut up, it's too early for this, now, who sprouted a—whoa!" She stopped speaking at the sight of her friend.

His yelling had reached all the way to the seventh floor, woken Meriel and brought her downstairs at this ungodly hour.

"Cayenne did," he said absentmindedly, not bothering to look at her.

Shishi, however, poked him with force using the hilt of his sword, directing his attention to the newly awoken girl.

"What the hell? Not you too!"

"What do you mean, "you too?""

"You've got a fin, and pointed ears," Shishi stated bluntly.

"Okay, okay, everyone just calm down!" Koenma shouted over the speaker, "I've found the old records and this is merely one of the stages."

"There are stages?" Kurama questioned.

"Yes, well you see," he coughed, "when the trainees receive their weapons, they begin to morph. Each of them will take on the appearance of an elemental under their given element, but…I'm not sure what's happening to Cayenne…"

"Not sure, what is there to be sure of?"

"As far as I know, a cat is not an elemental, merely a familiar. I'll look into it further, but what should be happening is Cayenne turning into a salamander, not a feline."

"What about us?" Takara dragged slowly down the stairs and rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"Let's see…Meriel is currently turning into an undine, and Takara will become a gnome."

This snapped her awake.

"You had better be joking."

"I know what you must be thinking, but I reassure you, it will be nothing like a lawn gnome experience. Real gnomes have bird-like attributes and are red-tinged. That said, you hair will probably change colors some, and you'll probably sprout wings by the end of the day, but that's about it. Now, is there anything else?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah," Meriel stated, "what's Reijin turned into? She got her weapon before us and has been holed up in her room ever since."

"What? Why hasn't she kept up her training? She's a sylph now, and you tell her to get back on her training immediately!"

With that, Koenma broke the connection.

"But she hasn't been holed up, she's been sick," Takara affirmed like Meriel had gone dumb overnight.

"No," Talli spoke up, "human diseases can't harm you at this stage."

No one was quite as surprised as Takara at this. In fact, her face seemed to lose its color a bit before she went running up the stairs.

"What's wrong with her?" Rinku started, "It's not like it would be out of character for Reijin to try this."

"True, that girl has been the most troublesome up until now." Hiei said, disregarding the fact that the DQ thing probably irked him more than the others.

Takara returned within a few short minutes.

"Reijin's gone," she began somewhat shakily, "why didn't you sprites tell us about this sooner?!"

"What's the big deal?" Michon asked.

"Reijin can't play sick for crap, I should know! R…Rei…" her voice cracked, "Arabelle is probably trying to train by herself right now!"

_Takara only uses Reijin's real name when she's worried. This must mean real trouble,_ Meriel thought.

"She doesn't think ahead, she's smart, but…she never looks ahead," Takara groaned.

"But still! What could really happen to her? She'd come back if she were in real trouble!" Cayenne looked around at the room of people, most of which, when in solitary training, had been much deeper into the forest than the girls, "She would…wouldn't she?"

"Not if she couldn't," Kurama stated the worst, "Takara probably already realizes this; we had a bit of an encounter when we were out training last. He was a high level demon, and I had to step in and take him down. If Reijin is out training with less than adequate knowledge and a weapon she isn't sure how to use, it could mean big trouble."

"What are we doing sittin' around then? Let's get going!" Yusuke yelled to the living room.

They split into three groups: Suzuki, Yukina, Genkai, Takara, Cayenne, and Meriel were left at the mansion for different reasons; the first three for their knowledge of healing, the others so that they would not become part of their problem that was currently stuck inside of a demon infested forest. The other two formed search parties, taking the right and left sides of the area.

Wherever Reijin is now…

"Are you sure this will work, Pink?" Reijin asked desperately.

There was a tag team she had not counted on currently exhausting their resources: a winged demon and one giant mess of a partner. They kept hitting her with combos and every time she tried to make a ground escape the giant barred her way. If she tried an air maneuver, the quicker one trapped her also. She was forced to fight her way out, and it was not going so well. Recently, Pink had provided some useful advice dealing with her wand: it was equipped with tiny holes near the base and top. When installed with the proper herbs, new abilities were available!

This was where they were now; if she used one exceptionally powerful plant Pink had pointed out she might win…though she could cause severe injury to herself and everything around them. It took some thought and stalling, but she finally reached a decision.

"Pink, get as far away as possible; I've never been one to back away from a challenge!"

"Are you sure? I don't think you're quite ready for this yet, whether it be a worthy challenge or—"

"Yea, well that's just my excuse. My real reason is I want to win and I want to win big style!"

_Of course, that's just how much pride I have…now that's something for the autopsy: cause of death: pride._ She stalled a little longer for Pink's escape and then began the summons of her final attack. If this didn't work, she was toast, burnt toast. _This must be why it's a deadly sin…_

"I call upon the strength of the White Being," she paused and let the ominous feeling set in, "to vanquish enemies even as you may do so myself! Take these burdens far from here, as the petals of destruction flow from my wand," the demons were now wary, and she braced herself for soon-to-be events, "So shall it be!"

Forces erupted all around them; the wind spiraled around her and quickly expanded into a vicious tornado that shattered all, including the demons. It would not stop at there though, no matter how much she pleaded with the White Being. No, it continued to grow, and as it did, she was losing air. The vortex was making it increasingly hard to breathe; if the power failed to fade soon she could suffocate to death. The air powered by specially summoned force was beginning to lose its strength though. An outside force was tampering with her summoning; thankfully, this attack of hers had attracted a lot of attention.

She fell onto the muddied grass shaking with small spasms and gasping for air before laying flat on her back from exhaustion. Her wings receded from lack of power and it took a few seconds for her to realize that someone else had dispersed her attack for her. But what did it matter? She was dead tired, had no energy to fight, falling asleep now would make absolutely no difference to her life…

Back at the mansion…

Takara waited outside anxiously as Meriel searched for many fireworks. They would serve as a signal for the others to return when Reijin was brought back, of course, that was just an excuse to blow up things. Cayenne was mixing different teas to calm her nerves—she had developed quite a taste for them when Genkai broke her of her coffee streak.

Every time the wind quickened or slowed they looked for signs that someone was coming towards them, but it was mostly disregarded as nothing since it was already a generally windy day. Once though, when Takara was picking out which fireworks to use, she was blown off her feet, upside down, and shortly thereafter her stomach came into contact with the wall of the building. Then, when the wind suddenly stopped, she fell to the porch on her head and cursed. It then hit her that Jin had returned with Reijin and she set off each and every firework in her arms yelling, "Fire in the hole!" before they all blew up.

Grinning madly, she rushed back into the house to see what had become of Reijin while in the forest. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw her body, unmoving on the couch, but she was quickly reassured that she was unconscious and just much drained.

"She was lucky Jin found her when he did," Genkai started, "from the way he tells it, her powers were getting out of control to the point of which she almost killed herself."

At that moment, Pink flew through the door. She was a fluffy looking thing at a second's glance. Her hair was short and blonde with a ribbon headband in it and she had glaringly gold eyes. Her outfit was a simple green shirt and flowing white skirt; her wings were mostly silky down feathers. She was a little bit beaten up from helping Reijin, but she still gave a detailed account of the fight from the beginning with her simple air attacks to the end with the explosive final assault.

"Will Arabelle be alright?" she questioned, "I warned her that that attack might be too hard to handle, but she went ahead anyway," she sighed. "Crazy sylph, Master Raphael told me she might be so."

"That reminds me!" Meriel suddenly burst out, "Who are these Masters? Where are they and where did you all come from?"

"We were sent to help you with your weapon training!" Michon piped happily.

"Yes," Pink verified, "our Masters are the archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Ariel, and Raphael. We're supposed to help your advancement into the next stage, but not to tell you what will happen in the future."

"Why's that?" Cayenne asked, twitching her tail a little.

"Because that might change the course of events," Talli affirmed, "our only purpose is to train and report progress."

"But I like their future!" Tiaret squeaked from the inside of a box of cookies, "Can't we tell them just a little bit?"

Pink merely dove into the box and shoved another cookie into her mouth before reemerging, now with cookie crumbs added to her ensemble.

"Mm…Hey, who's got cookies…?" Reijin mumbled and rolled off of the couch.

She startled the few people near and they moved away. She was still for some time until a hand started groping for the box. She nearly ate Tiaret once but finally got a cookie. It was like the miracle of life: she sat up, newly awoken, and asked "Where the hell am I?" Yes, that's truly what we all think in this instance, that, and "Where's the nearest bathroom," but she was still in the food stage.

"Good, you're alive, mind explaining why we had to send out a search party for you?" Genkai asked jadedly before motioning for Yukina to start preparing tea for them.

"Gimme a cookie!" she stuck her tongue out at everyone and snatched the box.

"Hey! You little ingrate, that's not all yours!" Cayenne twitched and pounced on her.

In a mass chain of events this resulted in a giant dog pile among the girls with a lot of 'ouches' here and there, especially once Reijin comprehended that there were tails she could pull. Eventually everyone else returned from their search and either became a spectator, a refreshment-giver, or someone who would stay clear of the match until the first sign of a real injury occurred. The final result was Reijin lying flat on her back on the very bottom, Meriel squished on top of her with Takara leaning on them for support as Cayenne perched happily on her back munching on her newly obtained cookies.

But then again, this just did not work for Reijin and her injuries. She forcibly summoned her wings to send everyone flying off in a random direction before swiftly making her way to the comfort of her own bedroom before anyone had the chance to blink, much less head up the stairs to try to cut her off. The only one who could, and did catch her was Jin, who could fly alongside her and had much more energy to expend. She, however, barely made it to the third floor before stumbling through her doorway and making an attempt to lock it before he could also follow her inside; this resulted in failure, she was just too weak at the moment. The door was forcibly pushed open and she was flung to the floor. All of her energy expended into her previous flight, the room was a flurry of feathers as her wings dissipated once again.

Jin looked down at the creature before him. This girl was very different form the one he saw when he went over her profile, very different from the girl who had arrived here. The one who had arrived at the beginning of their mission was happier, a naïveté attitude of sorts. This one was more…advanced; she held a more womanly atmosphere with her transformation into a supernatural being. With her new assertiveness and newfound position in life's game, it was no wonder that her stare held anger, sadness, but most prominently, confusion. She would sooner aim a knife at him than see him invade her personal space right now. That was a chance that he was willing to take.

"You should not be this upset at me right now!" He yelled, "I practically, no, I **did** save your life out there!"

Bad (suicidal) move. Never tell a woman in this state that she is wrong.

"WHAT!" She practically exploded. "That was an entirely different issue! It had absolutely nothing to do with what I was initially…"

"That was an accident. Completely. I think I know what you heard, but you didn't hear how the conversation began."

"You still said it. I'll bet this mess just strengthens your point," she said bitterly and turned her face away.

He paused, probably thinking of what to say next. Letting his mind wander to the no doubt concerned people downstairs, he closed the door on their prying ears and took another step inside the room. Reijin bristled, but made no motion from her place sitting on the floor. The atmosphere was uncomfortable to say the least, so he took another careful step forward, and when he was not crucified, he sat down on the floor cross-legged. Another minute passed and he proved to still be intact, so he began speaking again.

"What you heard, I shouldn't have said. It wasn't my point either. You heard me say how, um, annoying you were being, right?"

She gave an almost unnoticeable nod.

"Well before that, I was saying to Touya how I was completely unprepared for this assignment."

Still no reaction, though she seemed to be listening reasonably now.

"During my rant," he continued, sighing deeply, "I tried to push some of the blame on you because the assignment was stressful. You aren't exactly the easiest person to handle—"

"To handle!" Her face flushed red and she spun to face him, while pulling her legs into the same cross-legged fashion. "So now I need to be handled?"

"No! That's not what I meant! I mean—wait, what?"

"I can handle myself," her eyes drifted away, "under the right circumstances."

"But that's not the point, is it?"

"No," she kept her gaze averted but said with blunt honesty, "I just needed a reason to yell since I forgive you now, and," she continued, now completely red, "I guess I should say sorry for the way I reacted."

That threw him for a loop. He sat for a moment, quite speechless. It took his mind a moment to process the insanity of the woman's thought process: first anger, then moodiness, then, once reasoned with, a confusing blend of apology, embarrassment and cold anger was thrust forward.

"It's…okay," he responded, afraid that anything other than simplicity might get him in trouble once again.

During the pause in which he was unsure of what to say next, she spoke.

"Jin?"

He looked her in the eyes. The cold anger was regaining some of its heat. What did he do?

"Get out of my room!"

Oh. That's what he did.

She decided that he was not scampering away quickly enough and threw the nearest plushy at him as he closed the door. _Softer than a game case_, he thought as he levitated back to the lowest level of the mansion. The company looked him over and it was decided that he must have been successful if there was no sign of physical injury. They asked him what had happened nonetheless. There was a long pause.

"Women are confusing…scary, too."

The men laughed and the women present proceeded to pummel him. Then they moved on to the rest of the men: a whole new version of "Battle of the Sexes."

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No notes this time, surprisingly. I've been trying to get this chapter done since 2006 O.O Finally, now maybe I can move on to further chapters. Don't expect another long pause, I'll warn you if I get stuck. Ha ha. Jin doesn't do responsibility. Neither does Reijin. That's why it's so hard for those two to be stuck together. 


	8. Coworkers Versus Consumers

R&R please!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter One of this fanfiction.

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Chapter Eight: Coworkers Versus Consumers

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Training was cancelled for the next day. Everyone was exhausted by recent events, especially the girls. Reijin was quiet, so Takara made sure to check up on her frequently, though she doubted she would find her missing any time soon. Day faded into night and without incident, people retired to their rooms for the night.

Or so the caretakers thought.

One would expect that anyone who went through the day they did would plan on nothing further for the night. But leave it to Takara to formulate something different. Her worry now completely subsided, she called Cayenne, Meriel, Yukina, and Botan into Reijin's room for a little girls' night in.

"Okay everyone! Time to brainstorm! It's been forever and a day since our last sleepover, so what exactly do we do?" she poised the question toward everyone present.

"Ooh! Let's start with pizza! All great sleepovers start with pizza," Botan exclaimed immediately.

"Great! How do we get it?" Reijin asked.

"I can call Hisano." Botan took out her communicator.

"Who… Oh! Isn't that the other girl who brought us here?" Cayenne asked the ferry.

"Yes! I'm sure she won't mind joining us and we'll get her to pick up our things while she's out; so if you want something, ask for it now or forever hold your peace."

No sooner had she said this, did Yukina chime, "We need balloons!"

This set the wheels in motion. Something about balloons just seemed dastardly and the girls hurriedly comprised their list. Hisano would call them back once she reached the shopping district which gave them about twenty minutes. After that, all they had to do was figure out a way to sneak Hisano in without alerting the boys. Genkai was more likely to let them make their own mistakes, and seeing as they did not have training the next day it truly did not matter what they did. They just had to be secretive. That was a sleepover rule. They chose the window nearest to Genkai's room and furthest from everyone else's for the entry point.

Since Reijin's "great escape", some sort of barrier spell was set up around the mansion at nights. The girls were also under frequent surveillance in the daytime now. The workings of the spell were not deeply explained to them, and for good reason. They did, however, explain them to Botan and Yukina who, after taking several vows from the girls, told them what it was all about.

It specifically registered everyone in the household's spirit energies, all save for the four wanting passage (five, counting Hisano), so when another entity attempted to leave or enter, it was safely relocated. The flaw in this system though, was that if a registered person's spirit energy was detected, it must be let through. That being the case, it was a simple matter for Botan to transfer a small portion of her energy to each of the girls to make escape possible. It was not that the rest of the house's occupants had not thought of this, it was that they did not think that someone (Botan in particular) would actually break this rule and let the girls out. Then again, they did not count on the feminine factor and how that played in the complex lives of girls (long live the sisterhood!).

And so, they were freed upon an unsuspecting city. Although Botan offered them rides on her oar to where Hisano was waiting, Cayenne had different plans. She told them to wait in a strangely familiar location, and within the next few minutes she returned with a very demolished, yet still functional, blue convertible. Both Reijin and Meriel went into hysterics and Takara asked what was up.

"This is it! This is the car Hiei stole for Dairy Queen!" Meriel exclaimed.

The rest of them joined in the laughter but soon hushed up when they realized how loud they were being. There would be time for this once they were off the property. Cayenne eased the piece of junk away from their home and, once a reasonable distance away, gunned it. They made it through midnight traffic in Tokyo at a surprising speed with Cayenne at the wheel. This actually had to do with her newfound powers. As quick as a cat, she could anticipate the troubling traffic before it could trouble her.

Once she stated this, they all inevitably came to a revelation that should have vexed them from the start…

"Oh my…what in the WORLD will people SAY when they see us like THIS?!" Takara yelled.

Cayenne was now in the parking lot at one of the many malls in the area. The girls were nearly in a panic before Reijin finally said that she had a plan. She got out of the car and the others followed suit, unsure of themselves. As they walked towards the building, they were about to pass a group of teenagers who were already pointing and staring.

"Um," one younger girl began and the group stiffened, "what exactly are you people supposed to be?"

"We're cosplayers! We just came from our con for some DDR without a line," Reijin told her.

_Quick thinking!_ The entire group was relieved as they passed by the rest of the people without incident. That was their excuse for any other curious bystanders as they made their way towards the arcade.

"You know we can't use that excuse forever," Meriel stated.

The group gave a few nods and understanding sighs but did not bring it up again.

Tiaret, now human-sized and looking like nothing more than a normal ten year old, went versus Takara first round. Takara was playing Heavy mode like nothing before and Tiaret was struggling along with Light, though neither failed and both repeatedly scored 'A's. Talli took over the Para Para Paradise machine with Meriel. Cayenne and Michon attacked Soul Caliber and the last pair, Reijin and Pink, was showing off their skills at something involving a spork and a microwave. That was oddly enough going on behind the counter. One thing led to another and they were making a run from the mall cops five minutes later. Apparently, the arcade owner did not appreciate their help with dinner.

They took refuge in the food court. All was going well until, who other should walk into that particular area than Yusuke and Kuwabara! Cursing their luck and wondering what in the world those two should be doing out of the mansion at that hour (they were not required to sneak out after all) they ducked behind the first unmanned food outlet. It happened to be a McDonald's. It also happened to be where the duo came to order their late night snack.

Quick thinking landed the shortest person (Michon) in a uniform two sizes too big with an oversized hat that well hid her hair and face. No sooner did she make it to the counter did Yusuke slap it obnoxiously to gain attention.

"Hey! What's a guy have to do to get some service around here?"

"Ah, another night, another imbecile looking for a heart attack," Michon replied sarcastically in a deepened voice, "what would you like, sir?"

She kept him busy with standard cashier vs. customer banter while Reijin, Pink, Takara, Tiaret, and Meriel made their ways out of the mall. They slipped past the far end of the counter from the duo before Yusuke, in a violent burst of inspiration, stormed the McDonalds.

And then, in a violent retaliation to save their hides, Cayenne turned on all the nozzles on the ice cream machine and aimed them directly at him before he could take more than two steps into their hiding place. That was the beginning of the mall war. Those left behind caught on and grabbed any ammo they could and not-so-discreetly hurled it at the duo. The manager tried his best to stop them, really, until they sprayed him too. Then they made another "great escape" and left Yusuke and Kuwabara to deal with the growing angry mob in the food court—filled with upset children, screaming teenagers, and obese people wanting the ice cream kindly removed from their burgers and jumbo fries.

When the mischievous part of the group came up the getaway car laughing hysterically, those who previously escaped were suspicious but waited until they were out of the immediate area to question their antics. After a complete recap, Takara had nearly swerved them into a mailbox for the fifth time while she was clutching her gut and the steering wheel from laughing so hard.

"That serves them just right!" She finally managed to yell over the screaming pedestrians in her way.

"At least we know we won't run into them again anytime soon," Reijin agreed and then added, "that poor manager will make them clean for hours until…hm…would that be ours or their mess?"

"Theirs," Botan told them, "we escaped. Thankfully Yukina used her ice powers to turn the temperature of the ice cream on the floor to subzero; they won't be getting out of there until…I'd say late morning!" she laughed.

"It was an accident!" Yukina said defiantly, "He acted so brashly, it was all I could think of."

"Yeah, right, so you say," Michon replied, "either way, good job."

After they stopped at one of the many Dollar Trees and obtained party supplies, they continued on their merry way back to the mansion.

Unfortunately for them, they were not alone. And unfortunately still, a trap was waiting for them; it was not as kind as the trap they had Yusuke and Kuwabara in either. Oh, severe luck for one of the strange girls. In an inspired moment of hyperactivity, Takara abandoned the wheel and demanded to be put in the trunk, for fear of future illegal activity between their current point and their home.

He was waiting. The enemy has made the first move.

Takara shifted in the mostly empty space. It was hard to maneuver and at one time or another she pushed or kicked an unknown object or two left behind by the previous owner of the vehicle. During a traffic jam, in which the group commenced in the traditional hollering and cursing, no one noticed when Takara's own curses became screams for help.

Something clutched at her ankle. It was small and wiry, but breathing. It was moving too, rapidly up her leg it went until it neared her face. Its small fingers grasped her face and needlelike fingernails poked at her flesh. Seemingly all at once, feelings of lightheadedness and pain descended upon her. Was it possible for the darkness of the trunk to become even blacker? To her it was. Her senses faded and when she moved she did not feel. The little monster that attacked her was taking over.

Immensely confused, she tried to gasp for air; oxygen seemed too thin in her current state. Then, her body beckoned to be let out of the trunk. She knew that this would take a while; her friends would have to get out of traffic and pull into a parking lot first. She took this time to rationalize. It was very hard to concentrate. She tried to remember things that had happened that earlier that night; she tried to gain her sense of self back. An encouraging image of the security guards calling for backup in the mall sparked her sense of humor. One step closer to control, she assessed her options. The being was in complete control of everything except her mind. _Well, I can start by not freaking out. Once I'm free, I'll need to be in total control for whatever happens next_

The being escaped the trunk. It requested to drive and began to take the back roads. It was very hard for Takara to stay in a meditative state as she vaguely heard her friends ask where "she" was taking them, and also heard "her" smug response, "You'll see when we arrive."

_Of course they won't suspect a thing!_ Takara groaned inwardly. _They just think I'm taking them somewhere fun! Never mind the o__ld roads that thing is taking__, that just makes it seem cooler._ If she could have used her mouth to pout, she would have. Finally, the being pulled up at an abandoned baseball field. It was wide and very few houses were near it. If Takara's jaw could have dropped she would have screamed and pitched hell. This place was not even five miles wide of the temple! _So __**this**__ is where the enemy's been hiding…DAMN! How did we miss this? Mental note, come back here later._ She paid attention as the being surveyed the area. _This place actually is pretty cool. Our enemy has good taste._

"Follow me out here," her voice told them.

Then, she realized as her eyes focused on a place in the distance, that her friends were walking right into an ambush. _Why, oh why did we have to sneak out tonight??_ There were three people, presumably demons, waiting for them. They were in a triangle formation, two at their sides and one dead ahead. When they were in reasonable range, the being stopped and faced the group. It smiled. Its next words were said in a painfully slow manner for Takara.

"You've been ambushed."

The being fled her body as the demons rushed them. As Takara's senses returned, she had a feeling of overwhelming sensation that numbed her and sent her to her knees. This did not last long and she just as quickly stood back up and countered one of the demons. Botan screamed and she and Meriel both took whacks at another demon. The last one however, was not reacted to fast enough and both Reijin and Cayenne were slashed. They fell to the ground somewhat injured, but not badly. The sprites took evasive measures and went about spreading their magic defensively around the group. Luckily, they could not be easily reached or caught, and their powers were strong.

However, instead of staying with the group, Takara took off after the being that had tricked her so easily. She left them with a simple message as she escaped.

"I'm sorry! Survive! I'll be back!"

The demon she previously blocked came at her again, but Yukina made a useful assist and froze the ground under him. He slipped up (literally) and failed to capture Takara who was soon out of sight and gone into the woods surrounding them.

The being's small, bony structure made it insanely easy for it to maneuver, luckily, the recreation of Haunting Ground was finally coming in useful. She locked onto its energy like they were taught to for the "plate keys." She lost track of it once or twice, miraculously not more so. If anyone else had gone after the creature, they wouldn't have been half as successful. Not only was Takara the most adept at locking onto her targets, her element was Earth in a forest—who could ask for a better coincidence? Although the creature was foxy and dodged around from obscure place to place, it eventually decided that it had lost her and continued into another field that was densely surrounded by brush.

Takara could not be stealthy getting into this particular place and cursed her now failing luck as she finally barreled through the last of the brambles blocking her path. She couldn't have been expecting to see a certain peculiar scene.

There stood their infamous enemy ringleader. He did not give off a ferocious aura to Takara…instead it seemed calm, almost like a troubled sea. The man, Raika, had the being perched on his raised left arm. It nibbled at his leather glove and slowly worked its way to his regal suit. He seemed not only important to their mission, but to the demon society also, as well dressed as he was. Eventually he managed to dig a small morsel from his pocket and fed the creature that went on its way soon afterward. He was unconcerned with Takara up until that point, and she did not mind. Although she was strongly compelled to give him a good chewing out, she was gratefully using the time to catch her breath from the running the creature had given her. Then, he faced her and she straightened up. Looking him dead in the eyes, she commenced the chewing out.

"Well? Aren't you going to say something? I've caught you!" After a silence she continued, "You're after us for our powers aren't you? I thought you'd at least have the decency to fight us head on instead of this underhanded maneuver! But of course…ha, how could I have forgotten? Your profile screamed secrecy, so this should have been expected. My idiocy aside, what have you got to say to me now? Speak! Give me something! A motive! Some witty banter! Something I can use to yell at you more, you fiend!"

After her semi-dramatic speech (the tension was dying when she hesitated in the beginning), he took a quick glance around, as if to check for someone, _presumably my friends._ Then, in a cold, hardened voice he threw her dialogue away with a sentence.

"Do you…like this place?"

"What kind of bull…?"

"Where we are…this place…these fields…do you like them?"

As soon as the words faded from the air the sound of slicing grasses was heard. His head cocked to the side and a rift in the dimension appeared to his right. Before Takara could respond or otherwise curse he was gone and Reijin appeared in the clearing followed by Cayenne. She turned to them and sighed.

"Look, I refuse to answer any blabbering questions until we're finally…**finally** at the mansion and I've had at least three slices of pizza. Hey…where's Meriel?"

They laughed off her question and Cayenne simply gave, "Oh, you'll see."

When they finally wound their ways back to the baseball field Takara fell into fits of laughter. The sight she came upon played out a little like this: The four sprites had erected two shields, one to keep in the demons and another to keep out the local pedestrians. Inside the triangle shield Meriel had the demons bouncing on three separate geysers as Yukina tossed frozen ice balls for Botan to hit with her oar at the poor attackers turned victims. Eventually Yukina froze the geysers and the girls took them into custody.

Now…how to hide them until morning?

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Random bursts of inspiration are great :D R&R! 


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